If we could easily save the life of a child, we would. For example, if we saw a child in danger of drowning in a shallow pond, and all we had to do to save the child was wade into the pond, and pull him out, we would do so. The fact that we would get wet, or ruin a good pair of shoes, doesn’t really count when it comes to saving a child’s life.

UNICEF, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, estimates that about 24,000 children die every day from preventable, poverty-related causes. Yet at the same time almost a billion people live very comfortable lives, with money to spare for many things that are not at all necessary. (You are not sure if you are in that category? When did you last spend money on something to drink, when drinkable water was available for nothing? If the answer is “within the past week” then you are spending money on luxuries while children die from malnutrition or diseases that we know how to prevent or cure.)

The Life You Can Save seeks to change this. If everyone who can afford to contribute to reducing extreme poverty were to give a modest proportion of their income to effective organizations fighting extreme poverty, the problem could be solved. It wouldn’t take a huge sacrifice.

But first we need to change the culture of giving – to make giving to help the needy something that any normal decent person would do. To help bring about this change, we need to be upfront about our giving. Will you take the pledge, and thereby encourage others to do the same?

For more details, and sources for the claims made here, please see the book The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty.

You can also take a look at some other writings by Peter Singer on this topic:

'Famine, Affluence and Morality', Philosophy and Public Affairs, vol. 1 (Spring 1972)
Chapter 8 of Practical Ethics, Cambridge University Press, various editions
'The Singer Solution to Global Poverty', The New York Times, September 5, 1999
'What Should a Billionaire Give - and What Should You?', The New York Times, December 17, 2006

For articles by Peter Singer adapted from or about The Life You Can Save, click here.

You can watch two clips of Peter Singer discussing this topic in Astra Taylor’s 2008 movie Examined Life here.