Animal Rights Essay Research Paper Phil EthicsAnimal — страница 2

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which extend direct obligations to animals, including both Regan’s view and the utilitarian view. Machan notes two reasons for why some believe that animals have rights. First, following Darwin, it has been argued that humans and animals differ only in degree, not in kind. Thus, it is improper to draw a clear line between humans as rights-holders, and animals as nonrights-holders. Machen argues we are justified in using animals for our human purposes since we are more important than animals (although not uniquely important). Machen says that within nature there is a scale of importance, where animals are more important than rocks. Further, at each level in nature, there are distinct criteria which make some members of that species better than others. For example, an oak which

resists disease is better than an oak which does not. A carnivore with claws is better than it would be without claws. Distinctly moral criteria enter only when we reach the human level. For, only humans are judged better or worse on moral criteria. For Machen, our fundamental human task is to succeed as human beings which requires that we learn. Learning, in turn, often involves using animals, as with animal experiments in the field of medicine. Machan?s view is a very insensitive view point, yet it is one that makes more sense. As dominant beings on earth it is our ability to do anything we want to with anything less powerful than us. This may also include humans as well. This may not be the most moral thing that could be accomplished but as it is said history is written by the

victors. If Hitler would have won World War II we would have had a completely different out look on life but he did not win the war and we still have our way of life. As it turns out the American society has evolved to respect every things right to be free from pain and oppression (and what ever else our foreign policy stands for) This could be applied to animals as well if we wanted to practice what we speak. Animals are beautiful things and need to be respected as anything beautiful is respected. You do not needlessly dismember a priceless Van Gouge for the sheer fun of it, you admire its beauty. All information was taken from the following sources found on the internet. [A] Patrick Bateson, “Do Animals Feel Pain?” New Scientist, April 25, 1992, p.30-33. [B] David Foster,

“Animal Rights,” The Associated Press, December 3, 1995. [C] Bernard Rollins, Animal Rights and Human Morality Buffalo, N.Y., Prometheus Books, 1992. [D] Peter Singer, Animal Liberation, New York: Avon Books,1990.