Journal Article10.1111/J.2041-6962.2008.TB00075.X
Moral Status As a Matter of Degree
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors present two models of degrees of moral status, and discuss several significant considerations in favor of, and several against, the assertion of degrees in moral status.
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Abstract: Some people contend that fetuses have moral status but less than that of paradigm persons. Many people hold views implying that sentient animals have moral status but less than that of persons. These positions suggest that moral status admits of degrees. Does it? To address this question, we must first clarify what it means to speak of degrees of moral status. The paper begins by clarifying the more basic concept of moral status and presenting two models of degrees of moral status. It then sketches several significant considerations in favor of, and several against, the assertion of degrees of moral status. The paper concludes by drawing lessons from the discussion.
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Citations
Minds without spines: Evolutionarily inclusive animal ethics
Irina Mikhalevich,Russell Powell +1 more
- 01 Jan 2020
TL;DR: It is argued that moral consistency dictates that the same standards of evidence and risk management that justify policy protections for vertebrates also support extending moral consideration to certain invertebrates.
An African Theory of Moral Status: A Relational Alternative to Individualism and Holism
TL;DR: In this paper, a modal-relational perspective is proposed to account for degrees of moral status in the English-speaking literature, according to which the greater a being's capacity to be part of a communal relationship with us, the greater its moral status.
164
Moral Limits of Brain Organoid Research
TL;DR: This paper outlines a moral framework for brain organoid research that can address the relevant ethical concerns without unduly impeding this important area of research.
132
The ethics of genome editing in non-human animals : A systematic review of reasons reported in the academic literature
TL;DR: A systematic review of the reasons reported in the academic literature for and against the development and use of genome editing technologies in animals reveals a low disciplinary diversity in the contributing academics, a scarcity of systematic comparisons of potential consequences of using these technologies, an underrepresentation of animal interests, and a disjunction between the public and academic debate on this topic.
76
In Defense of Eating Meat
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that sentience is not sufficient for moral status, and that although animals experience pain as it is physically bad, their experience of it is not in itself morally bad.
45
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TL;DR: A successful MSR elephant study is reported and striking parallels in the progression of responses to mirrors among apes, dolphins, and elephants are reported to suggest convergent cognitive evolution most likely related to complex sociality and cooperation.
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TL;DR: Evidence that convergent intelligence has occurred in two distantly related mammalian taxa is provided and these findings have important implications for understanding the generality and specificity of those processes that underlie cognition in different species and the nature of the evolution of intelligence.
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TL;DR: The present authors demonstrate the first retrospective reports of uncertainty by non-human primates while also suggesting their limits in this area.
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Human-animal chimeras : Human dignity, moral status, and species prejudice
TL;DR: This essay argues that stem cell research intended to generate human neurons in Great Apes and rodents should be prohibited out of respect for the research subjects and such experiments involving rodents may or may not be permissible, depending on how the authors answer unresolved questions regarding rodents' moral status.
75
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