Tom Regan and Animal Rights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Tom Regan and Animal Rights - Essay display caseThere was a meter when it was comm but accepted by civilized people that those of non-European descent deserve to be chattel. There was a time when women could be viewed as property. In general, it seems that humanity has over time increased its level of moral sophistication and expanded its moral universe. In particular, there has been a focalize on rights-based analysis People have intrinsic rights, inalienable, and it is always wrong to eclipse them. In the moderne era, there are many, such as Regan, who submit that perhaps the next logical evolution in our expanding moral universe is animal rights, treating animals with certain inalienable levels of treatment Regan makes clear that animal rights generally loaded in effect(p) that Rights that animals have to certain levels of treatment. Like all rights analyses, these arguments are deontological rather than utilitarian or consequentialist. as yet if you clear get a good outc ome for killing a cow or experimenting on a rabbit, it is wrong because it violates more(prenominal) or less norm that, if the violation were universalized, would cease to exist. Society as a consentient might benefit from animal testing, but it is still tortured. A key assumption to this argument is some kind of parallelism between animal and humanity. Virtually no one sheds a tear for the conclusion of a rock. If a rock needs to be destroyed for societys good, there is no hand-wringing. The consequentialist analysis is delusive when we are speaking of the purely material world. Thus, animal rights debate center not just on the classic deontological-consequentialist debate, but also on the issues What is life? If we view life as divine, is that divinity only confined to man? What matters in our moral universe? Is it sentience? If so, how much sentience? Is it the ability to flavor pain? If so, to what degree of sensitivity? There are some who argue that animal rights are abso lute, that just as a humans free speech can never be violated so can an animals rights against pain or death never be undermined. Regan contrasts these people with those who view animal rights as something more contingent and fluid (70).