Topic
The Case of Animal Rights
Instructions
According to Tom Regan, animals, like humans, should never be used in the ways we have been using them (i.e food, research, entertainment, cloths), because we all have inherent value. What is the source of this inherent value, according to Regan? And why is this sufficient, according to Regan, to safeguard animal rights? Do you agree that Regan’s account of animal rights is enough to safeguard an animal’s right not to be killed for food? Why or why not?
Answer preview
In his book ‘The Case of Animal Rights, Regan (1983) bases the source of inherent value from the fact that every animal has a story of its own that is not peculiar to anyone else, and is therefore, a subject of life. On that account, Regan argues that the inherent values of both human and animals should not be decided by looking at the emotions, autonomy or their lack of intellect because some humans also lack those values and still have the human rights. Instead inherent values should be looked at based on the fact that every animal has its independent life and although they cannot speak or do other things that humans can do, the bear the same pain that human bears.
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