Animal Rights Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Animal Rights - Research Paper Example A school of debaters of animal rights claim that whether animal should have rights should be decided on which characteristics of animals have been taken into consideration. But most often some of the debaters fail to consider animals’ rights in term of human being. Obviously animals’ rights should be considered in relation to human beings’ welfare of betterment. Probably, purely ethical perspectives will never be able to reach any unanimous conclusion. Indeed, the attempt to include human being in the issue of animal rights is debated, since some people believe that inclusion of human-animal relationship into the debate on animal right violates pureness of ethicality of rights. Indeed, such a tendency fails to consider the fact that the question of animal right arises the very conflict of human interest with animals’. Therefore, any attempt to decide whether animals should have rights and (if yes) what rights animals should have needs to take human-animal relationship into consideration. Necessarily, if man-animal relationship along the previously mentioned factors is taken into consideration, debaters can reach a conclusion which might not be the unanimous, but will prove to be effective good for animals and also for humanity. Indeed any ethical decision about animal rights from a man-animal relationship perspective, in the very first place, grants animals to have rights, since lack of animals’ rights endangers not only the animals but also the human life on earth. A Brief History of Animal’s Rights Though the debates on animal right began to absorb heat during the 21 century, it has a root in the ancient philosophy. The â€Å"Book of Genesis† says that God has given Adam dominion over â€Å"the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.† (Francione, 1996, p. 45) A creed religiosity most likely vie ws such statement as the divine assertion of man’s right over animal as the possession of material property. But a more liberal view on this doctrinal assertion considers that man’s dominion over animal kingdom does not necessarily infer that man is the ruthless usurper or exploiter of animal kingdom (Francione, 1996, pp. 42-46). Rather he is the sincere guardian of animals and he must know what animals should have what rights. Furthermore, the famous philosopher, Pythagoras argues that animals should have the right to be respected because their souls are reincarnated from human souls and vice versa. Indeed, Pythagoras’s argument is mostly doctrinal; so it needs to be validated from any ethical perspective. Even Aristotle also advocated such doctrinal view about animal right; but he holds a view which is opposite to Pythagoras’. He likes to see human beings and animals on the same ‘Great Chain of Being’. Indeed, Since Aristotle’s view is also tied with a rigid ethical framework, it cannot tell much about what man should do when man’s right and animal right conflict with each other (Fellenz, 2007, pp.34-45) In modern Europe, the concept of animal right began to grow during the late 18th century. Arthur Schopenhauer (1998), who was a German philosopher, was a great supporter of this the development of the concept of animal right in England. Though he supports man’s practice of eating meat, he appreciated the idea of animal right: â€Å"awakening more and more to a sense that beasts have rights, in proportion as the strange notion is being gradually