Opposing Views On Anima Experimentation, Do Animals Have Rights? Essay Examples

Introduction

Imagine someone take you by force without your consent and subject you to severe torture in the name of experiment and leave you to die or to recover naturally without proper medication. Let me divert your thinking, imagine you are sick and in a lot of pain. Your closest companion neglects you and says you deserve it since you don’t have emotions or tears. Think of the two scenarios above would that be fair or morally right? Your answer is probably no. Then why are we comfortable when we subject animals to severe pain or neglect them in the hours of need.
The article has divulged itself in this controversial issue of whether animals have moral right in our society. There is been wide debate on this issues from different scholars such as Cavalieri, Singer, Bentham, Darwin, Cohen and Frey to name a few who have express divergent opinion on whether the animals have rights or not. The article has brought forth the both side of the debate and settle on why it is important to observe the rights of the animals. Additionally, the article depicts the cruelty that is extended to the human beings who are not considered normal in the name of experiment. Thus, the article shows the importance of respecting the animals and other human being since we are obligated by the law and the moral standards to preserve their rights.

Summary

According to the article, animals have moral standing (Beauchamp, 1997). This means the animals have normal sensory functions like the human beings hence they can feel pain when it is inflicted on their body. Thus, this gives the animals the right and qualifies them to the morality protection at all time. Thus, the human beings have the moral obligation to provide adequate to protect the animals since they have the rights just like any other human being.
Various scholars and research have dismiss the claim that animals have right of protect or respectable treatment. This is because animals on a grading scale have few properties which make them equal to human. Due to the few characteristic which make them equal to human being beings animals have minimal or no moral standing hence they don’t deserve to be protected. However, scholars such as Cavalieri and Singer, argue that since the animals have some characteristics which resemble the human being, thus they deserve to be protected to some extend.
On the other hand, cognitive functions are another source of controversy on the animal protection rights. Some believe since the human have the ability to reason and self determination, hence they are not equal to the animals since they don’t possess these qualities. This makes humans more superiors than the animals hence deserve moral protection than animals. However, the author questions what if a person lacks certain characteristic which are believed to make humans superior to animals. Does a person become less human due to the lack of these properties? The author points out that we should not put much emphasize on cognitive functions, we should consider sensation and emotions when animals do not satisfy the cognitive properties. Thus, the law and ethics obligates us to show compassion to the animals since subjecting animals to pain is evil.

Critical Evaluation

According to Beauchamp, “animals have moral standing; that is, they have properties (including the ability to feel pain) that qualify them for the protection of morality” (Beauchamp, 1997), and human have duty to protect the rights of the animal. This is this central theme of the paper. The author has management to bring out clearly why we ought to protect the animals at all cost. Despite opposition from different quarters, the author has able to bring out the weakness of the criticisms of the animal rights and make a strong point that why we humans should show compassion towards the animals.
The writer acknowledges that the animals may lack some properties which make them equal to human beings. But that does not give the man the right to violates or mistreat the animals. This is because the animals have feelings just like normal human being. When we judge whether the animals have right we should first look at the properties which such as pain which makes them close or equal to human beings. If we evaluate the animals properties from this angle, our grading scale on the animals would be much high than we had anticipated. As the writer has put it, human beings are at advance stage of revolution; hence we should not look down on our cousin such as apes who are still to realize their full revolution.
The article has shown that animals have rights since they have mental life which makes them conscious of their environment and communicate in their own language which the human cannot understand. The author has able to show that animals have intend and understanding capacity. This is brought out in the way animals construct their place of dwelling or shelter themselves from the harsh environment or adapting to a new environment and searching for food to survive. These attribute exhibits some quality thinking capacity, standing, communication and ability to intend. Although, the animals may lack critical thinking capacity to thick rationally and make moral judge that does not give the humans the right to mistreat the animals the way they wish. It is our moral obligations to provide adequate care and protections to the animals. It is ethically correct and within the law to care for the animas. A person cannot be persecuted because he/she has shown compassion to animals. Furthermore, there is no need to exposed animals to inhumane experiment if we have alternative methods we could bring out the same results as using the animas (Beauchamp, 1997). It would be helpful if human beings would use animals for safe experiment which don’t subject the animas to torture. The animals should only be exposed to necessary pain which is justified; animals should not suffer needlessly since they have emotions just like any other human beings. Thus, we should not subject the animals to pain since we consider themselves less valuable to humans in life.
On the other hand, although the article has brought issues moral rights of the animals very well, the article has failed to give the statistics of the animals which are exposed to inhumane experiment on a daily or annual basis. This would show the magnitude of the problem and the danger the animal are exposed to on a daily basis. The statistics will also show which are animals are vulnerable to torture or inhumane experiments. Additionally, the article has not indicated how people can assist to prevent animals against mistreatment. The author could name some of the organizations where the public can report animal abuse to reduce or eliminate the inhumane activities against animals. However, the article is very excellent since it bring the awareness of animal moral right very well. The article has also justified why the animals deserve this moral rights against the inhumane experiment. This is an excellent article for those who are in support for fair treatment of animals.

Conclusion

Although the experiments are good for the advancement of human life and improving the quality of life, that does not justify the inhumane treatment express to animals by humans on a daily basis. Animals have conscious just like normal human beings. They can feel pain and they also need to live like any other human being. Being without critical thinking capacity to take things rationally does not give humans the licenses to treatment the animals badly since they are not equal to humans on rational matters. Therefore, we have moral and ethical obligations to provide adequate protection to animals at all time. I concur with the author that it’s our responsibility to provide care to animals since they feel pain and they have emotions just like humans beings.

Work cited

Beauchamp, Tom L. "Opposing views on animal experimentation: do animals have rights?." Ethics & behavior 7.2 (1997): 113-121.