Jefferson is studying for his masters in clinical psychology at the University of Queensland with the help of his four-year-old black labrador, Ice. Photo: Supplied
An inspirational blind student has accused a philosopher who argued against giving money to guide dog charities of "trying to play economics with people's lives".
Controversial ethicist Peter Singer made the case for eschewing guide dogs in favour of international charities focused on saving people's sight on ABC's QA last Monday night.
He argued training guide dogs didn't provide the best value for money for philanthropists.
Philosopher Peter Singer said donations would be better made to organisations preventing blindness in a developing country than to training guide dogs. Photo: ABC
"You can say sure, it's good to train guide dogs to help the blind but if we're doing that in Australia or in another affluent country, it's going to cost you tens of thousands of dollars," he said.
"In the United States it costs about over $40,000 to train a dog and to train the blind person so that they can work together and the dog can be helpful to the blind person."
Mr Singer said spending $100 to prevent blindness in someone in a developing country was "clearly" the better option.
"What's better, to prevent someone becoming blind or to give a blind person a guide dog?" he said.
"I think it's clearly better to prevent someone becoming blind, plus it costs only $100 so you can calculate for $40,000 how many people you can prevent being blind."
But University of Queensland masters of clinical psychology student Jefferson Mac said Mr Singer had ignored the human aspect of his argument.
The 2014 psychology valedictorian's guide dog, Ice, changed his life, giving him the chance to study for a future career helping other disabled people deal with tough times.
"My personal view, is that if you give to charity domestically, what it does, it will change the life of somebody who can make a difference to others," he said.
"Whereas your hundred dollars overseas in Africa might restore vision to an African child who has a cataract but that extra vision isn't going to help if they can't eat.
"Giving money to Guide Dogs Queensland, to train a guide dog for me means that I have the independence to study in the highest level institute in the state to be able to be qualified to help all the other people in my town and globally as well if I choose to."
Mr Mac was born with congenital glaucoma, a degenerative eye disease that saw him declared legally blind in his early 20s.
The Fairfield resident likes to joke that when he teaches new students how to get around the St Lucia campus it's literally the blind leading the blind.
He's volunteered for Guide Dogs Queensland and Vision Australia and in five years at UQ has earned the praise of fellow students and faculty for his work helping non-native english speakers, first years and other students with a disability.
School of Psychology Associate Professor Barbara Masser said Mr Mac's perseverance and determination were to be admired and people were drawn to his kindness and warmth.