I asked about one probable result of genetic research: the ability to grow - from embryonic

I asked about one probable result of genetic research: the ability to grow - from embryonic stem cells - organs to be used solely for spare body parts. Singer told me that heroin should be legal, since its "prohibition has done more harm than good", and that violations of seat-belt laws should be punished, because the consequences of traffic accidents place an unfair burden on society. Even so, Princeton was unprepared for the intensity of the protest that has accompanied the selection. The university has been forced to take elaborate measures to ensure Singer's safety; Shapiro has received death threats; a campus group has been established to protest against infanticide; and even the usually tame Princeton Alumni Weekly has printed letters such as the one from a member of the class of '38, which stated: "Nothing I have seen or heard epitomises the decline of Western civilisation so much as the hiring of Peter Singer to teach in the university's Center for Human Values."WATCHING Peter Singer think is like staring at the shifting gears of a precision engine: when you ask him about something, no matter how contentious or complex it is, you can see him churning through the calculations needed to produce a response. Not long ago, Steve Forbes, a Republican Presidential candidate, who is a member of Princeton's board of trustees, sent a sharply worded letter - which invoked the Nazi euthanasia programme - to the university's president, Harold Shapiro, urging him to rescind the appointment.

Shapiro, who is also the chairman of President Clinton's National Bioethics Advisory Commission, told me that he would never attempt to do such a thing, and noted, pointedly, that the appointment should not have caught Forbes by surprise, since Princeton's board must approve the hiring of every tenured professor. Long before Singer even moved to America, the university was picketed by groups such as Not Dead Yet, whose leader, Diane Coleman, told me that Singer "was a public advocate of genocide, and the most dangerous man on earth".There has also been dissent among Princeton officials. Still, the school is reeling from the public reaction to its choice. So Princeton made an unusual decision: Singer wouldn't be a member of either department. Instead, he has been appointed solely to the university's Center for Human Values.Princeton's leaders have been valiant in defending their new professor's right to say whatever he wants. In many respects, Singer was an obvious choice, but he was also a controversial one.

The philosophy department wanted a theorist, and Singer specialises in applied ethics, focussing on the world outside the academy. The biology department was nervous about hiring anyone who might oppose experiments with animals. But the university wanted to hire a professor who could stimulate debate. Singer wants to get out there and change the world, and to a degree that is surprising he has already succeeded."BY 1998, Princeton had been searching for its new Ira W DeCamp Professor of Bioethics for nearly a decade.