...Nowadays, animals are in danger of dying out, at least one million animal species have already disappeared since 1980. Worse still, as the using of hunting, laboratories, and commercial getting common, the number of animal species decreases faster and faster, and this phenomenon will continue if no one come out and speak up for the animals. Today, animal right is a highly contentious issue. Do animals have rights? Philosophers have different standpoints. In “The Case for Animals Rights” which is written by Tom Regan, Regan states that animals should have fundamental rights as humans, and also be protected from the unnecessary harm. In addition, in Peter Singer’s article “All Animals Are Equal”, he has the same standpoint as Regan that animals should have the same principles that human received. In contrast, in the article “The Case of the Use of Animals in Biomedical Research” by Carl Cohen, he supports Regan in his moral theory, however, he argues that animals should not have rights, and he also points out that the using of animals in medical research is important. “The Case for Animal Rights”, “All Animals are Equal” and “The Case of the use of Animals in Biomedical Research” let us know that although hurting animals is not unlawful, it’s morally wrong; for the purpose of protecting animals, people must change their beliefs. In Regan’s article, he supports that animals are equal to humans, and should have the same rights as humans. Although animals and us born in different...
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...Animal Rights Priscilla Peterman University of Phoenix Com/156 Instructor James Christianson This research paper is going to discuss a major concern with the issue of animal rights and how people view this critical issue. Animals deserve rights, and these rights should annihilate the many problems with animal abuse, abandonment, and animal experimentation. Animals deserve the same rights as humans. Animals, subsequently dating back to the days of Ancient Greece, have always held a place in the hearts of humans. And for so long as this animal human relation existed, so did the realism of taking care of the animals, whether it be in the form of love, care and equal rights. The idea that we are all born with essential rights, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, is important to our society, mainly to the ideas stated in the United States Constitution. Though, humanities inconsiderately demean this principle by denying that animals share these rights. Animals are just as titled to the rights of living, avoiding pain, and pursuing happiness as humans are. Yet still we exploit and abuse them cruelly, most often without a second thought. The use of animals in biomedical research, segmentation, testing and education, deprives animals of their natural rights and is a great injustice. We must believe that this is completely intolerable, and we should find more humane as well as...
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...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...
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...of the word equal changes that all animals were truly equal in the beginning to meaning the total opposite of that towards the end of the book. The meaning of the word “equal” changes throughout the book. The first example is illustrated at the beginning when they first kick Jones out of the farm, and they make seven commandments one of them being “all animals are equal.” In this instance, the word “equal” represented true equality among the animals; no animal was above the others. However, as the story progresses, we begin to see changes in the meaning of the word equal. First, the pigs are the ones who take the decisions and who lead the animals in the farm. At this point we begin to identify the pigs as the ruling class and as the elites. In fact, the animals who were disobedient suffered the consequences....
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...Details - All Questions | Question 1. | Question : | What is Peter Singer’s point about performing vivisection on mentally disabled human infants? | | | Student Answer: | x | That if we say that it would be wrong to perform experiments on such humans but not on non-humans then we are showing bias based upon species alone | | | | That a good speciesist would not perform experiments on any being | | | | That we should test upon mentally disabled human infants because the results would be more reliable than tests on animals | | | | That anyone who would consider testing on a human infant is a monster | | Instructor Explanation: | The answer can be found on p. 6 of Peter Singer’s “All Animals are Equal.” | | | | Points Received: | 1 of 1 | | Comments: | | | | Question 2. | Question : | Peter Singer’s “basic principles of equality” applied to animals means: | | | Student Answer: | | Animals should be given all the same rights as human beings. | | | x | Animals are not entitled to not all the same rights but to an equal consideration of interests. | | | | Animals should not be given the same moral consideration because they are do not have the same power to reason as humans. | | | | Animals do not have rights unless they can demonstrate the same abilities as humans. | | Instructor Explanation: | The answer can...
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...containing bad and good” Robert Hugh Benson, A City Set on a HIll. In George Orwells, The Animal Farm, the farm is the organism, composed of members who hold within the both good and evil, exactly like ours - just a little harrier. The Animal Farm overall is one complete representation of the inner workings of the communism within the Soviet Union, however within the novel there are many smaller symbols which relate to human society as a whole, one being the farm itself. George Orwell uses the farm as a symbol to show how a society functions in relation to the human race, and the classification system humanity created for itself....
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...Animal Equality: Effects of Giving Animals Rights PHI 103 Informal Logic June 2, 2014 Argument When it comes to animal equality it can be hard to imagine a dog, cat, or even a hamster of having equivalence. When I think of animals, I picture our pets, wild animals, and even those in which are consumed. The question of what is and what is not ethically appropriate in the treatment of animals has is debatable. Peter Singer’s provides a utilitarian arguments for why animals with a certain level of perceptive justify equal moral attention with humans. Introduction Singer calls for the establishment of a “liberation movement” comparable to those that remained emerging up throughout the dated in which he wrote his essay and attentive on such problems as gay, women’s and African-American rights. Noting how previously “legitimate” forms of judgment and prejudice, over time, correctly came to be observed as unfairly and immorally damaging towards definite classes of people, Singer argues that the time has come for a similar pledge to the rights of species that walk on four legs instead of two. The animal liberation movement, which was essentially begun by Singer’s book, Slate.com (2001) argues “It is ethically wrong to use animals in such a way that we cause them suffering, either by deprivation of essential components of a happy existence, or by causing them pain.” (Slate.com, 2001) The animal liberationists would like to disallow most medical experimentation using animal...
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...especially when it comes to whether or not humans and animals should be allowed different rights, or whether they are completely equal. This also includes whether or not all humans should be equal. Moreover another huge concern with ethics is when an unethical action might be considered the best choice; for example it is considered unethical to use animals to do research, but in some cases this might looked past. Depending upon the benefits of the research some might be slightly ok with using the animals. Often there is controversy over whether or not humans and animals should be held to an equal level, and even more whether or not animals can feel pain just as humans. Some just like Peter Singer who Francis Fukuyama discussed in his essay, seem to believe that animals should be held to a higher power and be considered more valuable than that of humans. Fukuyama quotes from Peter Singer in his article “Human Dignity”, “the need for animal rights, since animals can experience pain and suffering as well as humans, and the downgrading of the rights of infants and elderly people who lack certain key traits, like self-awareness, that would allow them to anticipate pain. The rights of certain animals in his view, deserve greater respect than those of certain human beings” (Fukuyama 190). Overall, Singer is saying that depending upon the mental ability of the human and depending upon the animal it may be in demand of much more reverence than the human. Of course, there are several opinions...
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...Oct 2014 Final Essay The Place of Nonhumans in Environmental Issues Peter Singers essay titled “The Place of Nonhumans in Environmental Issues”, focuses on a general question. How the effects of our actions should figure in our deliberations on what we ought to do in regards to nonhuman beings, or generally speaking, animals and our environment. Speciesism is defined as “involving the assignment of different values, rights, or special consideration to individuals solely on the basis of their species membership”. Simply put, we humans consider ourselves while discounting the effects of our actions on the nonhumans. When a new roadway is to be built that may directly interfere with Elk habitat, or a dam that is to be built where salmon flood the river during spawning season, we do a cost benefit analysis. But, when we do the analysis, we rarely figure in the impact on the surrounding wildlife and only figure the benefits to human beings. A new roadway will help us travel to work faster, but interferes with the surrounding wildlife that lives in these areas. And a new dam will help power hundreds of new homes, while decimating the already low salmon numbers. We humans calculate our benefit, while discounting the effects of our actions on nonhumans and the environment. We can use the example of the past racist white slave owners of the South. These slave owners only were concerned with benefiting themselves and those of their white race, while never considering the interests of their...
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...In his essay “All Animals are Equal,” Peter Singer argues that there is no moral justification behind our refusal to extend some form of equality to animals. He states that because attitudes such as racism and sexism are fundamentally wrong, so too is the premise that one species is more deserving of ethical treatment based solely on the idea that one is more capable of thought or suffering than the other. The idea of treating animals as our equals is one that has been mocked in the past, but only because many have taken that idea to mean that animals are equal to humans in the most literal sense possible. As far as we can tell, most animals do not invent, think deeply, or create culture, and therefore are not equal solely in terms of rational behaviors. However, this is not the kind of equality Singer advocates for in his essay. First, he argues, we should not be equating moral equality with that particular kind of factual equality. If we were to base moral equality on factual equality, then we would be justified in discriminating against fellow humans based on ideas of inequality in regards to sex, race, or intelligence. The only way to fight this type of discrimination would be to prove that the feature or capacity we have chosen as a marker for factual equality is arbitrary, and can provide qualifiers from some other feature or capacity instead. The African-American and women’s liberation movements took this approach. They argued that skin color and sex were only arbitrary...
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...All Animals Are Equal PHI103 I chose to do my argument over “All Animals Are Equal” by P. Singer. After reading this argument I have concluded that it is trying to take serious discrimination issues with humans and comparing them to discrimination issues with nonhumans (animals). The information begins by talking about all the discrimination issues we have faced and are facing as a country and how we have began to fight for equality. It states “We became familiar with liberation moverments for Spanish-Americans, gay people, and a variety of other minorities” (P. Singer, 1989). Liberation movements changed the way society viewed discrimination and how we equally treat “minorities.” A liberation movement demands an expansion of our moral horizons and an extension or reinterpretation of the basic moral principle of equality. And it’s sad to say, but if we wish to avoid being numbered amongst the oppressors, we must be prepared to re-think even our most fundamental attitudes. As P. Singer states, “I am urging that we extend to other species (animals) the basic principle of equality that most of us recognize should be extended to all members of our own species” (1989). Singer then focus’ on women’s rights and how fighting for women’s rights isn’t sound. He goes on to make the claim “if women’s rights are sound when applied to women, why should the argument not be applied to dogs, cats, and horses?” (P. Singer, 1989). One way which we might reply to this argument is...
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...All Animals are Equal The argument I’ll be addressing today is to decide if “All Animals are Equal” by Pete Singer. Singer’s essay “All Animals are Equal,” develops an emotional debate for how we view or treat animals as humans (Singer, P. 1989). He also stirs up an argument regarding the equal treatment of animals and the equality with how we treat human beings as a whole. “Singer calls for the beginning of a “liberation movement” similar to those that were sprouting up during the period in which he wrote his essay and focused on such issues as gay, women’s and African-American rights.” There has been a lot of media coverage of an American dentist whole killed a lion in another country, while ignoring some senseless killings in our own country. Has the time come for us as human beings, beginning to respect the rights of animal’s verses our own kind? Will we continue to enjoy that nice steak dinner, hamburger, or thanksgiving turkey? Is it fair to say the sport we call hunting, is inhumane as abortion, the death penalty, or sending our defenders of this country to war for some people? Could his message be subliminal in this essay by referring those animal to human beings that endured struggle? Are we born into this world to be vegetarians due to our teeth structure and development of our body composition? We very well be but that decision should be left to the individual to decide. Pete’s utilitarian direction, due to the theory of an animal that suffers, should be...
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...All Animals Are Equal PETER SINGER In TOM REGAN & PETER SINGER (eds.), Animal Rights and Human Obligations. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1989, pp. 148-162 Available freely online at: http://www.animal-rights-library.com/texts-m/singer02.htm. In recent years a number of oppressed groups have campaigned vigorously for equality. The classic instance is the Black Liberation movement, which demands an end to the prejudice and discrimination that has made blacks second-class citizens. The immediate appeal of the black liberation movement and its initial, if limited, success made it a model for other oppressed groups to follow. We became familiar with liberation movements for Spanish-Americans, gay people, and a variety of other minorities. When a majority group— women—began their campaign, some thought we had come to the end of the road. Discrimination on the basis of sex, it has been said, is the last universally accepted form of discrimination, practiced without secrecy or pretense even in those liberal circles that have long prided themselves on their freedom from prejudice against racial minorities. One should always be wary of talking of "the last remaining form of discrimination." If we have learnt anything from the liberation movements, we should have learnt how difficult it is to be aware of latent prejudice in our attitudes to particular groups until this prejudice is forcefully pointed out. A liberation movement demands an expansion of our moral horizons and...
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...Animals deserve the right of equal consideration. There are two sets of characteristics that represent how beings are treated differently; the first way is by rationality, having the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, and the second way is the ability to feel pain and pleasure. As Peter Singer says in his article, “the basic principle of equality, I shall argue, is equality of consideration; and equal consideration for different beings may lead to different treatment and different rights.” The important characteristic that Singer points out is the ability to feel suffering, which gives beings the right to equal consideration. What gives beings the capacity to experience pain and pleasure is the idea of sentience. So in the case that animals do feel emotions like pleasure and plain, we must give them equal consideration of our interest. To help understand Peter Singer one must be familiar with the ideas of utilitarianism. There are two moral principles when talking about utilitarianism; the first principle is equality, in which everyone is treated with the same rights, and the second principle is the best balance of satisfaction over frustration. As discussed in class, human beings have the tendency to favor the interest of human beings themselves over non-human beings. Along the same lines, human beings also have the tendency to favor the interest of higher animals over the interest of lower animals. In Singer’s eyes, since animals have the capacity of suffering, we...
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...is speciesism. Arguments For Apes Getting Limited Rights If apes can be defined and categorized as persons, then they are to be given equal consideration and limited basic rights such as the right not to suffer from cruel treatment (i.e. in medical experiments). To argue otherwise would be speciesism, which can be defined as a prejudice towards the interests of one's own species and against those of members of other species. Main points as to why apes can be defined as persons: 1. Some scientists have linked the 5 great apes into 1 biologically similar group (chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, bonobos, and humans). Humans are just another type of ape. Humans and chimpanzees are 99% identical genetically (in respects to blood type, brain structure) and they demonstrate identical behavior for the first three years. 2. According to Kant, humans are self-conscious and rational, whreas animals are not and that is why we have no direct duties to animals themselves, but rather only to humans. However scientists have found that all 5 apes (this includes humans) are self aware and morally aware, as displayed in behavior. For example, if you place a dot on a chimpanzee, they are able to recognize that and realize it does not belong. This shows that they are self aware. Moreover, by observing Kanzi, the bonobo, we can see human like characteristics. For example, Kanzi is able to understand and carry out simple instructions such as starting a fire by using sticks and...
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