Animal Right Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Animal Right - Essay Example This is the reason why there are so many animal rights activists. The basis for animal rights therefore rests upon the idea that animals, just like humans, deserve to be treated humanely. Does this make sense and how does the subject of animal rights fare in ethics? Utilitarianism somehow sheds light on the validity of animal rights, especially the ideas of 19th century British philosopher John Stuart Mill. As utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism, then it follows that utilitarian ethics teaches that the ends justify the moral worth of an action regardless of the means. If we were to defend animal rights on the basis of this principle, then we are to accept the fact that protection of animal rights will produce a good outcome and is therefore good. One benefit that can be derived from this is that â€Å"animal rights teach us that certain things are wrong as a matter of principle† (â€Å"Animal Rights,† BBC). This means that by recognizing animal rights, the society is taught that the virtues of respect, kindness and compassion are indeed existent and are universal, in that one is not supposed to limit the expression of these virtues to humans but also to animals. Moreover, the protection of animal rights will somehow force people to seek more human ways of treating them and to seek other alternatives to the task at hand before resorting to animal use. These sentim ents are echoed in the following statement by German scientist Frank Gannon: Nevertheless, if one simply uses the idea â€Å"the ends justify the means† in defending utilitarian ethics vis-à  -vis human rights, then one would be forced to recognize that animal rights somehow contradict the idea of human rights – especially the human right to eat animals. This means that if one takes the view of utilitarianism, then he would advocate the happiness of the greatest number of people; and if what can help bring about this happiness is the killing of animals for food, then animals