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2008년 <죽음의 밥상>으로 국내 독자들에게 실천적 글쓰기의 힘을 떨친 피터 싱어는 <물에 빠진 아이 구하기>에서 윤리적 논증.도발적인 사고실험.생생한 통계와 수치.자선 활동의 사례 등을 통해 오늘날 우리가 세계의 빈곤을 대하는 태도는 미흡할뿐더러 윤리적으로 부당함을 손뼉을 칠만큼 통쾌하게 고찰한다.

윤리적 삶이 무엇인지에 대해, 돈의 가치가 무엇인지에 대한 가치관을 바꿔야 한다고 포문을 연 싱어는 이 책의 후반부에서 부유한 나라 사람들이 실제로 얼마를 기부할 수 있는지, 그들의 생활수준을 별로 낮추지 않고도 얼마만한 금액을 모아 자선할 수 있는지 구체적인 수치와 방법을 제시한다.

‘어떻게 다수의 대중이 자발적으로 윤리적 실천의 길로 접어들게 할 것인가?’라는 의미심장한 고민이 이 책을 낳았다고 한다면, 공리주의자 싱어는 최대한 쉽고 편한 결단을 통해 ‘세계를 구하는’ 방법을 도출하고 있다.

대중이 품격 있는 생활을 향유할 ‘필수적인 권리’를 인정하는 그는 ‘고급 레스토랑에서 식사하고, 명품옷을 사 입으면서도 윤리적 의무를 저버리지 않을 수 있다’는 과감한 논리를 전개한다. 이에 더해 가난에 빠진 세계를 구하는데 ‘소득의 5% 기부’라는 구체적인 대안은 학술적으로도 매우 흥미롭고 논쟁적인 주장이다.

Five hundred years ago, slavery was the most natural thing in the world. So was the torture of criminal suspects, convicts, and heretics. So was the virtual ownership -- and regular physical chastisement -- of women by their fathers or husbands. Most of us (I hope) now abhor these things, but anyone time-traveling back to that era who informed a slaveowner, torturer, or wife beater that his behavior was shameful would have been met with incomprehension, perhaps even indignation.

This is the right time to ask yourself: “What should I be doing to help?”

For the first time in history, it is now within our reach to eradicate world poverty and the suffering it brings. Yet around the world, a billion people struggle to live each day on less than many of us pay for bottled water. And though the number of deaths attributable to poverty worldwide has fallen dramatically in the past half-century, nearly ten million children still die unnecessarily each year. The people of the developed world face a profound choice: If we are not to turn our backs on a fifth of the world’s population, we must become part of the solution.

In The Life You Can Save, philosopher Peter Singer, named one of “The 100 Most Influential People in the World” by Time magazine, uses ethical arguments, provocative thought experiments, illuminating examples, and case studies of charitable giving to show that our current response to world poverty is not only insufficient but ethically indefensible.

Singer contends that we need to change our views of what is involved in living an ethical life. To help us play our part in bringing about that change, he offers a seven-point plan that mixes personal philanthropy (figuring how much to give and how best to give it), local activism (spreading the word in your community), and political awareness (contacting your representatives to ensure that your nation’s foreign aid is really directed to the world’s poorest people).

In The Life You Can Save, Singer makes the irrefutable argument that giving will make a huge difference in the lives of others, without diminishing the quality of our own. This book is an urgent call to action and a hopeful primer on the power of compassion, when mixed with rigorous investigation and careful reasoning, to lift others out of despair.

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