Applied Ethics Commons^™

Hunting Without Grounds: Why Hsiao Fails To Justify Trophy Hunting, Kyle York

Between the Species

Trophy hunting is probably bad. Timothy Hsiao (2020), however, thinks that it isn’t bad. This is because he thinks that animals lack moral status. Other philosophers have tried to argue against the theoretical grounds upon which Hsiao denies moral status to animals. I suggest that Hsiao’s arguments for trophy hunting should be rejected simply because they have extremely unintuitive implications. They imply that it would be fine to play ‘panda-ball,’ a variation of baseball where players use panda cubs as bases and balls, or even to blow up planets full of panda cubs just for the fun of it. As …

The Nature Of Persons And Our Ethical Relations With Nonhuman Animals, Jeremy Barris

Humanities Faculty Research

If we accept that at least some kinds of nonhuman animals are persons, a variety of paradoxes emerge in our ethical relations with them, involving apparently unavoidable disrespect of their personhood. We aim to show that these paradoxes are legitimate but can be illuminatingly resolved in the light of an adequate understanding of the nature of persons. Drawing on recent Western, Daoist, and Zen Buddhist thought, we argue that personhood is already paradoxical in the same way as these aspects of our ethical relations with nonhuman animals, and in fact is the source of their paradoxical character. In both contexts, …

An Application Of Philosophical Theories Regarding Animals And An Argument For The Replacement Of Zoos, Kailey Houck

Senior Theses

Animal ethics has emerged as a thoughtful discipline in philosophy over the last century. Animals were occasionally mentioned by thinkers such as Immanuel Kant and Jeremy Bentham in the scope of deontology and utilitarianism. More recently, animal ethicists such as Peter Singer, Tom Regan, and Gary Francione have constructed arguments specific to animal interests in the hopes of determining just where they fall in discussions of ethics. Other contemporary schools of thoughts such as Christine Korsgaard’s Kantian approach and the environmental ethics discipline consider animals.

Zoos have entered the realm of controversy quite recently as well. Zoos today have evolved …

Legal Purgatory: Why Some Animals Are Neither Persons Nor Property, Sharisse Kanet

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

All animals with non-borderline sentience are deserving of certain legal considerations independent of their use and relationship to human beings. That is, all sentient beings should have some rights. Given the current organization of the U.S. legal system, which divides all entities into property or persons, it is not surprising that animals are relegated to property status. I put forth a proposal to fix this whose central suggestion is that we create a third legal designation, legal patient, into which all non-person sentient animals (those which do not properly belong on either current category) would fit. These animals would receive …

Spineless And Sentient: A Challenge For Moral Comparison, Patrick Forber, Robert C. Jones

Animal Sentience

We agree with Mikhalevich & Powell but take issue with their criteria for attributing sentience. This problem is connected with difficult issues concerning moral comparisons and evaluating moral decisions when interspecific moral interests conflict.

Invertebrate Welfare In The Wild, Asher Soryl

Animal Sentience

Mikhalevich & Powell argue that certain cognitive-affective biases might distort people’s consideration of invertebrate minds and that the moral risks of false negatives in sentience research deserve greater consideration under precautionary frameworks. In this commentary, I draw comparisons between biases that concern wild animals and conditions in nature, arguing that the moral risks of disregarding the possible mental welfare of invertebrates are compounded by facts about their lives in the wild.

Application Of Fraser’S “Practical” Ethic In Veterinary Practice, And Its Compatibility With A “One Welfare” Framework, Anne Fawcett, Siobhan Mullan, Paul Mcgreevy

Professional Veterinary Ethics Collection

Ethically challenging situations are common in veterinary practice, and they may be a source of moral stress, which may in turn impact the welfare of veterinarians. Despite recognition of the importance of ethical reasoning, some veterinary students may struggle to apply theoretical ethical frameworks. Fraser developed a “practical” ethic consisting of four principles that can be applied to ethically challenging situations. We apply Fraser’s “practical” ethic to three cases that veterinarians may encounter: animal hoarding, animal neglect, and treatment of wildlife. We argue that Fraser’s “practical” ethic is consistent with a One Welfare framework, and may have increasing currency for …

Knowing The Standard American Diet By Its Fruits: Is Unrestrained Omnivorism Spiritually Beneficial?, Matthew C. Halteman

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

This essay aims to challenge the standard [North] American diet's (SAD) default status in church and among North American Christians generally. It attempts to allay some common concerns about the suitability of food ethics as a topic for serious Christian discernment, and argues that SAD is not spiritually beneficial, drawing support from five traditional sources for Christian moral deliberation, including and especially general revelation and discernment of the fruits of the spirit.