To allow for a clearer presentation of each position, FTU has rearranged the debate. In this chapter, the affirmative side will present its view. (Source for all biographies)

Andrew Solomon is a writer, lecturer and a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University. Solomon’s newest book, Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity, won the National Book Critics Circle award for nonfiction and was chosen as one of the New York Times “Ten Best Books” of 2012. Solomon’s previous book, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression won the National Book Award for nonfiction and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is a director of the University of Michigan Depression Center and Columbia Psychiatry; a member of the board of visitors of Columbia University Medical Center; serves on the national advisory board of the Depression Center at the University of Michigan, and on the advisory board of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. In 2011, he was appointed special advisor on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Mental Health at the Yale School of Psychiatry.

Peter Singer is a philosopher and author, best known for his work in ethics. He is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, a position that he now combines with the part-time position of Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne. Some of his more recent books include The Point of View of the Universe and The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty. In 2014 the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute ranked him third on its list of Global Thought Leaders, and Time has ranked him among the world’s 100 most influential people. An Australian, in 2012 he was made a Companion to the Order of Australia, his country’s highest civilian honor.