How to Do Animal Rights
Singer advances animal liberation through equal consideration of interests. Although he often talks about animal rights he does so only as shorthand, what he really means is liberating animals by giving them equal consideration. Equal Consideration versus Animal Rights Considering the moral interests of all animals equally is not the same as giving rights to animals. If you maintain that animals and humans have the same moral rights that forbid harm to them, then you cannot, say, experiment on them. However, if you maintain that animal and human interests are morally equal regarding experimentation then you can experiment equally on humans as on animals. If you are not prepared to experiment on one then you cannot experiment on the other. This table points out some of the differences between equal consideration and animal rights.
Table 2.2.1 Equal Consideration of Interests vs Animal Rights
Equal Consideration
Animal Rights
Definition
A moral principle stating that you should weigh the comparable moral interests of all creatures who will be affected by your actions.
The bestowal of moral benefits (ie rights) on animals to protect them from human exploitation.
What you should do
You should consider equally the comparable moral interests of all creatures affected by your actions.
You should obey the rights that animals have (eg if animals have a right not to be abused by people then you should not abuse them).
Asserts
Where comparable interests are involved, you can either exploit animals and humans equally or should not exploit either.
You cannot exploit animals. You have a moral duty to support the rights of all animals and would be morally corrupt if you do not.
Criterion of merit
Your action is right if its consequences are good (irrespective of your duty).
Your action is right if your duty is to do it (irrespective of its consequences).
Weaknesses
You must guess which interests are relevant and how to evaluate them.
Not all animals need the same rights (eg monkey vs crab), which makes for lots of different rights to remember.
Can trace historical roots to
Utilitarianism (see Chapter 2: Consequentialism).
Deontology (see Chapter 2: Deontology).
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