Ethical Duties Based upon Animal Interests

Resumen

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This article addresses the nature and scope of the ethical duties that humans have toward animals which arise out of the fact that these other beings are alive. Attention is also given to how the ethical concerns of individual humans will be transformed into social positions and ultimately laws for the protection of animals through the concept of the respectful use of animals by humans. Four broad principles are provided upon which an animal friendly ethic can be built.
Key words: Animals; Ethics; Rights; Law; Respectful Use; Animal Interests.
Este artículo trata sobre la naturaleza y el alcance de las obligaciones éticas que los humanos tienen con los animales, derivadas del hecho de que éstos otros seres están vivos. También se presta atención a cómo las preocupaciones éticas de los seres humanos individuales se transforman en posiciones sociales y, finalmente, leyes para la protección de los animales a través del concepto de la utilización respetuosa de los animales por los humanos. Se dan cuatro grandes principios sobre los cuales se puede construir una ética amigable con los animales.
Palabras clave: Animales; Ética; Derechos; Leyes; Uso Respetuoso; Intereses de los Animales.

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Extracto

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Ethical Duties Based upon Animal Interests

I. Introduction

While the issues of the existence and the scope of ethical duties by humans toward animals is a robust topic by itself, it is but a preliminary topic to the more difficult issue of what legal rights animals do or ought to have. Ethics are the product of individual thought, but laws are the synthesis of many individual ethics into a social perspective transformed into law. While this author’s primary focus has been on the development of the legal concepts of animal rights, the development of an ethical perspective has also occurred. The following article shares this ethical perspective while leaving to other articles my fuller thoughts about legal developments on behalf of animals1.

The threshold question is: how shall humans organize our thoughts about human relationships with the other beings of this planet What is the characteristic or attribute of animals that make a strong ethical claim upon humans It is the simple science based fact that they are alive, and that, as living beings each individual possesses a personal set of interests. Most ethical constructs exist in order to deal with the reality that humans have interests and these interests often conflict. We recognize that other humans exist and have interests which need to be taken into account in part because we want the reciprocal position, of other humans taking our interests into account when they act. Much ethical discussions focus upon the concept of mutuality of rights and obligations, but this is not helpful when discussing animals, as no one seriously suggest that animals can have ethical duties toward humans. Animal do not have the...

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