...Ethan Bruck Professor Smith EN-101-137 10 September 2013 Summary of “Animal Suffering: Learning Not to Care and Not to Know” “Animal Suffering: Learning Not to Care and Not to Know,” by William Crain addresses the issue humans have created in relation to raising children and killing animals for meat. The topic of killing animals, even for food, is always in debate. It becomes evident at a young age that children have a profound love for animals. In a specific 1999 study performed by Psychologist David Foulkes, it was found that kids under the age of seven tend to dream about animals, in one way or another. Most children understand that animals are their own beings and should be treated with respect, but what they don’t understand is that meat comes from many of the animals they care about so deeply. When kids find out about animals dying in order for meat to be produced, they immediately want to become a vegetarian. Due to their ages, these decisions are highly irrational, but still require parents to spend hours convincing their kids to abandon vegetarianism. Animals and people struggle to live in peace together, and young children dream of a harmless world. There is not enough research on the subject matter of how children react to choices made by adults with respect to animals and food. Going through life allows children to transform from a caring child to a detached adult. This transformation is crucial to understand the practices and lifestyles followed by the human...
Words: 556 - Pages: 3
...Imagine choosing between causing harm to a human being and an animal. In order to prevent the human from being wounded, you would have to cause a greater amount of pain in the animal. Most likely, you would choose to spare the human, thus injuring the animal. According to Peter Singer in his article “All Animals are Equal”, the welfare of animals must be considered equally with that of humans in part because of their ability to feel pain and joy as humans do (1972). His approach is utilitarian, as it judges actions based on the amount of suffering or joy brought about by an action. Therefore, in the aforementioned situation, one following Singer’s approach would choose to allow the human to be harmed because the total amount of suffering caused...
Words: 785 - Pages: 4
...of people who say they are against dog fighting , turn there heads and do nothing when they see it happening. So is that being against dog fighting or just not participateing in the fights. There is a difference. Today I will share three negative effects caused by dog fighting. In doing so I hope you will take a proactive stand against dog fighting. But first I will give you some background and history on dog fighting. The Humane Society of the United States estimates that there are at least 40,000 dogfighters in America, though that number seems to underestimate the epidemic of street fighting in urban areas. The history of dog fighting traces back to ancient Roman times when they fought against other animals in the Coliseum. The practice of pitting dogs against other animal continued through medieval times in England until it was outlawed in 1835. Around that time, the Staffordshire Bull terrier was developed and modern dog-fighting was born. The dog was brought to America in 1817 and dogfighting became part of American...
Words: 1035 - Pages: 5
...Given this, along with the fact that because of sympathy we infer the feelings of others by their behaviors and the fact that animals express their feelings in ways similar to those of humans, we can sympathize with animals when they are experiencing pain (or pleasure). Further, given that humans and animals both strive to avoid pain, we feel disapprobation towards those who are malicious (those who inflict or condone the infliction of pain and suffering on animals), we deem their motives and character to be vicious, and consider them morally blameworthy. From a Humean point of view then, it is morally wrong to inflict unnecessary pain and suffering on any animal. It is arguable that because of our relationship with the unexploited (cats and dogs) we can sympathize with them in ways that we cannot sympathize with the exploited (cows, pigs, chickens and turkeys). However, it does not follow from this that we cannot sympathize at all with the exploited. As stated above, Hume claims that we do sympathize to a greater degree with those close to us than we do with those that are further removed, but the fact remains that we can and do sympathize with those that are further removed from us. Given this, and the fact that the only relevant differences between our relationship with dogs and cats and our relationship with cows, chickens, pigs and turkeys are those of degree of contiguity, resemblance and causality, we still sympathize with the exploited and deem poor treatment...
Words: 277 - Pages: 2
...Name: Alhassan Kamara STUDENT ID: 200016162 Course: HSA 515 (Health care, Policy, Law, and Ethics) Instructor: Dr. Harold Griffin Due date: 03/11/2012 In this paper, I am taking on the role of manager of a cancer center in a small, suburban hospital. I am dealing with a lot. The nursing staff has expressed burn out because of an increase of terminal cancer patients. In one extreme case, Nurse Nancy feeling empathy for a rapid decline in one of the patient’s health (a 30 year old single mother), want to give an extra dose of narcotic drugs that could potentially end the patient’s life, and what Nurse Nancy perceives as her suffering. Q1. Explain how the Patient Bill of Rights applies to this case. The Patient’s Bill of Rights is the colloquial term for the Consumer Bill of Rights and Responsibilities which was taken up in 1998 by the U.S. Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry. This deals with a number of areas concerning patient rights, including information for patient’s, the right to choose a healthcare provider, access to emergency care, the right to make decision regarding care and the principle of autonomy, respect and non- discrimination, confidentiality at the way in which complaints should be handle fairly. The bill also notes the responsibility of the patients to take care of themselves. When looking at the potential issue of assisted suicide this is a controversial subject, in this case there...
Words: 1622 - Pages: 7
...Animal Abuse and Adult Violence Jeffery Dahmer, Albert Desalvo, Ted Bundy, and animal abusing children may have more in common than some may think. There is a fine line between an animal abuser and someone capable of harming a human being. Many studies show that most rapist, killers, child abusers, and murderers have a past of harming animals because they feel they have control over them. These disturbed individuals abuse animals for the same reason they would abuse people. Albert Schweitzer wrote, “Anyone who has accustomed himself to regard the life of any living creature as worthless is in danger of arriving also at the ideas of worthless human lives.”(Love, 2005) What is cruelty? Cruelty is defined as a deliberate infliction of pain and suffering ("Cruelty", n.d.). Many times these acts of cruelty are due to ignorance or the fact that the owners simply do not care. The most common type of animal cruelty is neglect or abandonment. This occurs when the owner does not provide their pets with food, water, shelter or proper veterinary care. These animals who suffer this type of cruelty often die a slow agonizing death because they are malnourished, dehydrated, or have diseases that go untreated. Other types of cruelty are animal fighting, hoarding, poisoning, shooting, and bestiality (Gianotto, 2001-2008). Time and time again these acts of cruelty go unpunished because the authorities have more important crimes against people to worry about. With so many studies...
Words: 291 - Pages: 2
...painlessly kill a patient suffering from an incurable disease or an irreversible coma. It is illegal in many countries, but it should be a legal option for anyone. The topic of euthanasia is an intense argument and a matter of ethics and morals. Doctors and medical professionals debate...
Words: 1792 - Pages: 8
...Assisted Suicide PHI 200: Mind and Machine September 12, 2011 Assisted suicide, it’s a very controversial topic. Some people are for it and many more are against it as it pushes the moral boundaries of right and wrong. The idea of assisted suicide, (ending a life by one’s choice) is not acceptable in many cultures, religions or personal beliefs, but is it any different that euthanizing an animal because that animal is terminally ill or in excruciating pain with no available treatment? How or why isn’t that seen as immoral and wrong? Is it any different than a person who is in pain suffering from a terminal illness, or in incurable and unmanageable pain from end stage diseases? End stage diseases such as cancer are very painful and no amount of pain medicine to manage pain can bring relief. In my opinion, just as many other choices we as humans are allowed to make, assisted suicide should be one. I have watched two family members now suffer in pain from end of life diseases, one from end stage brain and lung cancer which was diagnosed 3 months before the passing and the other emphasymia for 20 years. Although both deaths were different they both could have used assisted suicide, especially the cancer patient. My children’s great grandmother was 69 when she passed. She was a fairly healthy woman, she worked until 65 and then she watched my oldest daughter for 3 years while I worked. One day she wasn’t feeling well, the day after Christmas she...
Words: 969 - Pages: 4
...Assisted Suicide Jennifer Berger PHI 200: Mind and Machine Samuel Grummons September 12, 2011 Assisted suicide, it’s a very controversial topic. Some people are for it and many more are against it as it pushes the moral boundaries of right and wrong. The idea of assisted suicide, (ending a life by one’s choice) is not acceptable in many cultures, religions or personal beliefs, but is it any different that euthanizing an animal because that animal is terminally ill or in excruciating pain with no available treatment? How or why isn’t that seen as immoral and wrong? Is it any different than a person who is in pain suffering from a terminal illness, or in incurable and unmanageable pain from end stage diseases? End stage diseases such as cancer are very painful and no amount of pain medicine to manage pain can bring relief. In my opinion, just as many other choices we as humans are allowed to make, assisted suicide should be one. I have watched two family members now suffer in pain from end of life diseases, one from end stage brain and lung cancer which was diagnosed 3 months before the passing and the other emphasymia for 20 years. Although both deaths were different they both could have used assisted suicide, especially the cancer patient. My children’s great grandmother was 69 when she passed. She was a fairly healthy woman, she worked until 65 and then she watched my oldest daughter for 3 years while I worked. One day she wasn’t feeling well...
Words: 973 - Pages: 4
...Does God really exist? Is a question that brings a lot of controversy, because some people believe that God does exist and some people believe that he doesn’t exist? Based on the way that I was raised and brought up in a Baptist church I believe that God does exist. McCloskey believes differently than I do; and feels that God is not real. I suggest that you use your own reason and judgment and decide what feels true to your heart. McCloskey refers to the arguments that Christians used to defend God as being above all and the creator a lie based on the fact that evil still exist in this cruel world. God is said to be a man of peace and love but yet evil still exist in this world. “God is supposed to be omnipotent and has the power to stop evil.”(The Problem of Evil) McCloskey believes that the world exist because of evolution and not because it was created by God. The world consist of objects that has no purpose of why it exist and seems to be non compatible with anything in the physical matter that could have caused it to exist, so therefore the only explanation is the existing of a contingent being which would make it necessary for the existence of a necessary being; which is God. Indisputable means undeniable true, valid, or accurate and examples of design and purpose are not needed for proof for the existence of God because we are humans who are not always correct, because we were created to make mistakes. “The natural bodies which lack knowledge but yet act for an end,...
Words: 1111 - Pages: 5
...legalized in all countries c) Preview of the Main Persuasive Points: i. Everyone has the right to make a decision about their own life ii. Economic factors iii. Psychological effects Transition: Many people thinks that it is a murder, but when they visualize themselves in that situation they will agree. II- BODY A. Everyone has the right to die a. It is not government’s life, so government can’t decide. b. Euthanasia examples c. Psychologically healthy person has reason to die Transition:Hyppocratic oath says ‘do not harm’ but making person suffering is give him more harm than killing him. B. Economic factors should be considered a. No chance to survive b. Big amounts of Money c. Money can be used to save other people Transition: Others say that it is wrong, religiously, but why when people kill animal that is suffering it calls ‘saving’ him and kill person who is suffering is murder? C. D. Psychological effects a. Being burden to family and friends b. Seing close one dying slowly and paintful. Transition: When a person is ill and unable to move and there is no chance to heal, there is no reason to let him suffer and die, first inside then physically in awful pain. III. CONCLUSION a) Summary: I hope I have convinced you that euthanasia is the best option when medicine is unable to help. b) Restatement of the Thesis: It should be legalized, because letting person suffer is againts human rights. c) Memorable...
Words: 284 - Pages: 2
...The Right To Die Whenever an animal is suffering, do you let it sit there in agony as each day passes? No. You take it to a vet and give it a shot to put it to sleep. Why would you let an animal endure such pain when you know you can end it easily and painlessly? What if you were that animal? What if you were in so much pain and you wanted that chance to get rid of it all? Wouldn't you want someone to help you and give you that life-changing shot? This can be referred to physician assisted suicide. Physician assisted suicide is when a physician gives a person who is terminally ill a lethal injection to hasten their death by consent of the patient. To many people, this is thought of as morally wrong. Life is beautiful and precious and you should never end it, but to those who can't even control their bodily functions anymore, there is no more life. To those who are terminally ill, to those patients who can no longer live on their own and who suffer every day, what is life to them? Life to them is waking up every morning in pain, taking medicine that is only going to help them temporarily, and watching their family members mourn at their sickness. Would you want to live that life? In this aspect, animals are treated so much better than people. It is alright to put an animal to sleep, but it isn't right to let a patient rest in peace? The main reason why patients ask for physician assisted suicide is to end the torture and the pain of their disease. Why wouldn't you want to...
Words: 1413 - Pages: 6
...“We shouldn’t be so quick to believe that fish don’t feel pain.” The Standing Committee of the European Convention for the Protection of Animals Kept for Farming Purposes explains, "The skin of the fish is the first line of defence against disease and provides protection from the environment. It contains sensory receptors for touch, pressure and pain." In his book Pleasurable Kingdom: Animals and the Nature of Feeling Good, animal behaviorist Jonathan Balcombe, explains how fish are falsely, yet "commonly denied feeling" perhaps because of "their relative lack of facial expression." He states: When they are impaled on a hook, fish don't scream or grimace, though their gaping mouths may evoke a look of shock or horror to the empathetic witness. Using facial expression as a guide for sentience is hardly valid when one considers that some of the most intelligent and highly sentient marine vertebrates namely the dolphins and whales also lack facial expression. However, animals have many other ways of visually signaling their feelings. Crests, dewlaps, mouth-pages, pupil dilation and contraction, color changes, and body postures and movements are among the many visual ways fish and other animals convey emotions. Water is also a potent medium for communicating through chemicals and sounds. Dr. Balcombe examines studies as they relate to animals' sentience, including all that have been conducted on fish. His comprehensive scientific review documents that fish without a doubt feel pain...
Words: 653 - Pages: 3
...some person or thing is suffering, is it right to ease the pain? Assisted suicide by a physician can help people that truly ask for their suffering to be over. Every person should have a choice. The first topic to bring up is the realization of how we treat our pets today. No person wants their pets to suffer if they are ill. Pets that suffer are put to rest in a safe and to our knowledge painless way. A question to ask is why do people care more about their pets than the people in their...
Words: 672 - Pages: 3
...WHY EUTHANASIA SHOULD NOT BE LEGALIZED IN THE PHILIPPINES What is Euthanasia? According to merriam-webster dictionary online, euthanasia is the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy. It is commonly known as “mercy killing.” It could be either voluntary where a competent adult patient requests or gives informed consent to a particular course of medical treatment or non-treatment or involuntary if the decision is made without the consent of the person who is to die. The family resorts or consents the application of euthanasia if the patient is in a persistent vegetative state, brain death or coma. Actually, in most cases, the main reason is not because of the “mercy to the suffering of the person” but the incapacity to sustain financial need of the medication. The Philippines is considered as one of the developing countries until now and majority of the people belong to the poor families. But the question is, is it a valid reason for euthanasia to be legalized here in the Philippines? Is the financial incapacity of most of the Filipinos to spend for longer medication really a reasonable excuse? Many people will argue that Philippines really should legalize euthanasia given that it is a poor country and is not yet capable to provide enough medical assistance for everyone, especially to those patients that need longer hospitalization...
Words: 755 - Pages: 4