Princeton University announced today the establishment of a new Department of Death Studies, the first fully integrated academic program in the Ivy League dedicated to the responsible, science-based reduction of human presence on planet Earth. The department will be housed in Princeton’s University Center for Human Values.

Founding Ira W. DeCamp Dean Emeritus will be Peter Singer, Princeton’s recently retired bioethics professor. Dr. Singer spent 25 years arguing that newborns do not achieve morally relevant personhood until approximately one month after birth. This creates a “window of reassessment” for parents who choose to unburden themselves of an unwanted child after experiencing the negative impact on their lifestyle.

The curriculum includes DETH 204: Reproductive Restraint, examining the ethical framework for performing forced abortions on minors “unable or unwilling to consent,” with attention to the humane application of physical restraint if needed.

Princeton’s Office of Sustainability is simultaneously seeking a Gates Foundation grant for its pilot program Cradle to Carbon Credit: A Lifecycle Approach to Municipal Emissions Reduction. The initiative proposes a fully subsidized one-way field trip for Princeton Borough’s entire kindergarten class to Vancouver, British Columbia, where participants will access Canada’s MAID program under its new mature minor provisions. The trip includes a visit to the Vancouver Aquarium and a farewell lunch at a farm-to-table restaurant. The Gates Foundation application notes the program is “easily scalable to additional municipalities.”

The Jane Goodall Institute issued a statement of enthusiastic support. At the 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos, Dame Jane observed that all the world’s environmental problems “wouldn’t be a problem if there was the size of population that there was 500 years ago” — approximately 500 million people, or roughly a 94% reduction from current levels. Princeton’s Death Studies department represents meaningful progress toward that goal, one kindergarten class at a time.