Medical and Environmental Ethics - Animal Rights

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  • Created by: dominique
  • Created on: 07-05-14 14:30
Which greek philosopher said that animals existed simply to fulfil himan desires and needs, He said they didnt have the ability to reason like humans and therefore had no moral status?
Aristotle
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What is stewardship?
The mainly christin belief that humas have a God given responsibility to maage and control the earth
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What is Speciesism?
The belief held by some that it is unjust to treat one own species as being to superior to another. E.g Humans to animals
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What are the different approaches to the issue - "Do animals have a moral status?"
Animals have no moral status, Animals have a moral status though not the same status as humas, Animals have the same moral status as humans
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Animals have no moral status
We have no moral obligations to animals, they only have an instumental value, they have value only because they are useful to humans
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Animals have moral status- just not the moral status that humans have
We should treat them with respect, but are of less moral worth than humans. This implies that animals have insintric value. They are worthy in themselves of a moral status but arent equal to us as they dont have responsibilites in a moral community.
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Animals have the same moral status a humans
This claims that animals have equal insintric value- all beings have equal value in themsleves for what they are. Animals deserve the same rights as those given to humans. We are wrong to view animals as a resource to be killed for sport/ food etc
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What are the issues inlvoved in the use of animals?
Animals as food, Animal experimentation, Bloodsports and hunting, Culling, Animals as pets/entertainment
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Animals as food
90-95% of the animals that suffer and die due to to human intervention do so because of the demand for animals as food. Bad farming methods, cattle made pregnant via artificial insemination to keep up with the demand
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what are the arguments in favour of killing animals for food?
As superior beings we have the right to do what we please with them, we need food to live, many animals are created purposly for food, humans killing animals for food is part of the natural order
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What are the arguments against killing animals for food?
If animals have rights the surely they deserve the basic right of life, humans dont need to eat meet to survive, many of the animals created by factory farming live in poor conditions, animals killed for food are often killed in brutal ways
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Animals in medical and non medical experimentation
More than 2 million experiements take place every year in the UK. They are sometimes used to find cures for human illnesses, people argue that it isnt necessary to test human beauty products on animals, NO PET ANIMALS, painful for animals
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What are the arguments in favour of animal experiements?
Human life has greater intrinsic value than animal life, the information gained from such experiements could not be gained in other ways, the pain inflicted on the animals is minimised and controlled by legislation, useful medications have developed
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What are the arguments against animal experiments?
Animals have as much right to life as humans, The experiements can cause unnecessaey suffering to animals and degraded us as human beings, the benefits of such experiemtnts can be gained in other ways, the stress endured can make results meaningless
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Bloodsports and Hunting
Blood sport is used to desribe a sport that inloves causing suffering to animals. Bull fighting, dog fighting, badger baiting and hunting all fall into this catergory.
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What are the arguments in favour of hunting?
Some animals are a nuisance to other animals, so they are hunted to preent a loss of stock, hunting is a traition so should be maintained, skilled hunters ensure animals dont suffer unnecessarily, people need to eat, in some places hunting is the way
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What are the arguments against hunting?
There must be a more humane way of killing the animals, if they need to be killed, the tradition argument is poor, hunting one species can disrupt the food chain for others, organised hunts can do greater damage to the countryside
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Culling
One method of controlling numbers of animals has been through 'culling' or population control.
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What are the arguments in favour of culling?
Culling prevents potential damage to livestock or infections, it restores balance if one species is killing off a native species, cullign prevents the loss of food sources (animals/humans), culling removes animals with pose a threat to humans
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What are the arguments against culling?
We often cull animals for financial reasons, misuse of our dominon, we have no right to interfere with nature, there is often an alternative to culling, methods used to kill are often brutal, culling isnt effective in the long term
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Animals as pets or entertainment
For many the closest relationship is the one they have with an animal as their pet. Most people use their dominion over animals in a repsonsibly way and care for them, but some misuse this.
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What are the argumens in favour of keeping animals as pets?
Many animals receive better treatment as pets than they would do in the wild, we an learn about animal behaviour from spending time with our pets, have a pet may encourge repsonisble behaviour towards animals, allows expression of emotion/enjoyment
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What are the arguments against keeping animals as pets?
We have no right to keep animals in captivity in order to learn from it, we often abandon pets when they cost us money or are no longer cute/fashinable, the animlas fails to live in a natural environment (FALSE LIVING), right to freedom
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Animals as entertainment
Zoo's or Circuses' are a form of animals as entertainment.
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What are the arguments in favour of using animals in circuses?
Circuses help to preserve endanged species, they raise awareness of animals, as the 'superior' species we can use animals as we like, the animals can live in a 'safe' environment
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What are the arguments againts using animals in circuses?
Animals bred in captivity often cant be returned to the wild, we have no right to remove animlas from their natural habitat, animals are kept in 'prison-like' environments, people are more likely to consider animals as inferior
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What are the arguments for keeping animals in zoos?
Zoos help to preserve endangered species, most zoo animals are bred in captivity, some are released back into the wild, zoos are replacing poor living conditions with nice ones, we can learn about animal behaviour, help to educate about conservation
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What are the arguments against keeping animals in zoos?
Only a small % of animals in zoos are endangered, animals shoulnt be kept in zoos for our entetainment, a zoo isnt appropriate for studying animal behaviour, cramped spaces mean animals suffer, cannot be put back into the wild once bred in captivity
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Religious arguments against the use of animals are?
CHRISTIANS- Creation story implies we should be veggie, JUDAISM - Hunting and killing animals for sports isnt allowed, it goes against the Schechitah rituals for kosher food, ISLAM- Made by god, caring for them is important -treated with kindness
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Religious arguments in favour of the use of animals are?
CHRISTIANITY- St Augustine argued that animals existed for the benefit of humans. JUDAISM- Animals can be killed for food, but they need to be killed quiclly, painlessly, deliberatly and individually. ISLAM- Animals are sacrifced in muslim festivals
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

The mainly christin belief that humas have a God given responsibility to maage and control the earth

Back

What is stewardship?

Card 3

Front

The belief held by some that it is unjust to treat one own species as being to superior to another. E.g Humans to animals

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

Animals have no moral status, Animals have a moral status though not the same status as humas, Animals have the same moral status as humans

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

We have no moral obligations to animals, they only have an instumental value, they have value only because they are useful to humans

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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