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Chapter 2 Equal Consideration
Snappy Page Essence In the context of animal-human relations, equal consideration of interests means giving equal deliberation to the relevant moral welfare of animals as well as humans. Equal consideration of interests is not a new idea, but Peter Singer gave it wide circulation in his 1975 book Animal Liberation and defines it thus:
Equal consideration of moral interests is a moral principle asserting that we should give equal consideration to the evaluation of the moral welfare of every individual.
"Essentially this means that if an animal feels pain, the pain matters as much as it does when a human feels pain - if the pains hurt just as much. How bad pain and suffering are does not depend on the species of being that experiences it."
The strong version of equal consideration of interests says that animal and human interests are equally important and when there is moral conflict of interests you must consider animal and human interests equally. Humans should not take precedence over animals automatically and without thought.Singer-Posner debate. Slate Magazine. June 2001.Equal Consideration versus Animal Liberation Many people often use the terms animal rights and animal liberation interchangeably. This might be all right sometimes, but in a strict sense animal liberation is made up of two different approaches to liberating animals: equal consideration of interests and animal rights. Singer advances animal liberation through equal consideration of interests. Although he often talks about animal rights he does so only as shorthand, what he really means is liberating animals by giving them equal consideration. Equal Consideration versus Animal Rights Considering the moral interests of all animals equally is not the same as giving rights to animals. If you maintain that animals and humans have the same moral rights that forbid harm to them, then you cannot, say, experiment on them. However, if you maintain that animal and human interests are morally equal regarding experimentation, then you can experiment equally on humans as on animals. If you are not prepared to experiment on one then you cannot experiment on the other. Comparable Interests You must apply equal consideration to interests that are comparable. All animal species and humans share certain major interests in that they need nutrition, freedom of movement and social interaction with peers, for example. However, animals and humans do not share all interests. Animals do not need freedom of speech or freedom of religion. Freedoms of speech and religion are human interests that are not comparable interests with animals, so do not consider them. This may seem obvious, but some people like to confuse the issue by trying to compare irrelevant interests (�we should not give rights to pigs because pigs do not need free speech�). Some Advantages & Disadvantages Three advantages of applying the principle of equal consideration when deciding animal-human moral conflicts are:
This table points out some of the differences between equal consideration and animal rights.
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