Ethics Week 3 - Animal Rights and Veterinary Roles

Question 1

What are rights?

Answer 1

Moral or legal

Question 2

What are legal rights?

Answer 2

Self-appointed, arbitrary (because self-appointed), necessary for structure and function of society, culturally variable, social contract, they must be consistent, can only be held by humans (rights tend to be held by someone who can act upon it)

Question 3

What are moral rights?

Answer 3

Hard to define, universal and absolute, not accepted by all

Question 4

What are legal rights usually followed by?

Answer 4

Duties

Question 5

How are legal rights usually classified?

Answer 5

Usually positive (you must DO something) or negative (you must NOT do something)

Question 6

What are moral rights?

Answer 6

there are no laws to indicate this, some think that some moral rights are so basic they should be preserved irrespective of political party of social construct.

Question 7

How says all (higher) animals have moral rights?

Answer 7

Tom Reagan (Amercian philosopher who specialises in Animal Rights Theory)

Question 8

What do Animal Rights proponents argue? 8

Answer 8

• animals have similar levels of biological complexity
• they are conscious and aware that they exist
• they know what is happening to them
• they prefer some things and dislike others
• they make conscious choices
• they live in a way that gives them the best QOL
• they plan their lives to some extent
• their QOL matters to them

Question 9

What are the three possible moral statuses that can be applied to animals?

Answer 9

• they have no moral values (we have no duty to them)
• they have instrumental value (we have indirect duties to them)
• they have intrinsic value (we have direct duties to them)

Question 10

Is euthanasia an act of veterinary surgery?

Answer 10

No but you can’t harm the animal in doing so - you must be humane

Question 11

What animals are protected under the Animal Welfare Act? 3

Answer 11

UK domestic animals
animals temporarily under your care
animals not living in a wild state

Question 12

What are veterinary duties? 4

Answer 12

make animal health and welfare your 1st priority
keep to own area of competence
provide appropriate and adequate veterinary care
take steps to ensure 24 hour care and provide basic first aid care

Question 13

Define negligence

Answer 13

When harm, loss, injury or damage comes to the animal due to the veterinary surgeon acting without reasonable care and skill.

Question 14

What is speciesism?

Answer 14

A concept by Peter Singer. It is the unjustified lack of consideration for animals, purely because they are animals

Question 15

What are 2 animal specific ethical theories?

Answer 15

Animal Rights

Equal Consideration of Interests

Question 16

What are 2 general ethical theories?

Answer 16

Deontology

Consequentialism

Question 17

What are 2 human specific theories?

Answer 17

Justice

4 Medical Ethical Principles

Question 18

Define ‘persons’

Answer 18

those humans who have conscious awareness of the world. Those animals that have conscious awareness of the world

Question 19

Define ‘non-persons’

Answer 19

humans and animals that are insensate (e.g. - PVS = persistent vegetative state, severely mentally disabled)

Question 20

Define equality

Answer 20

Equality between species is not full equity between rights and wants and needs

Question 21

What is the socio-zoological scale?

Answer 21

= a blend of animal rights, equal consideration of interests and speciesism. It is similar to the way the 4 medical ethical principles are a blend of theories. Not a new theory but rather a model which to look at the use of animals and evaluate that use.

Question 22

What is the ‘Equal Consideration of Interests’ theory?

Answer 22

It is that equality between species isn’t full equity between rights and wants and needs. This theory states that we should give the same moral weight to the wants, needs and desires of each species according to the interests of that species. The theory doesn’t mean you have to treat all animals and humans the same, but when you treat them differently, it must be due to a morally relevant difference. With this theory we must consider the interests of the animals under our care.

Question 23

Do animals have rights?

Answer 23

95% Britons think yes (Ryder 1997)
66% of 10,000 Americans when surveyed agreed an animal’s right to live free of suffering should be just as important as a person’s” (Reynells 1996)

Question 24

What did Aristotle think about animals and rights?

Answer 24

He proposed that animals didn’t need to be considered in the realm of justice, nor should they be afforded any moral worth due to a lack of rationality

Question 25

What did Plato think about animals and rights?

Answer 25

He considered the ‘ideal condition’ where humans don’t consume meat due to a consequence for human health

Question 26

What are Beauchamp and Childress’ views on animals?

Answer 26

“An outright denial of moral status is implausible in light of the fact that virtually every nation and major scientific association has guidelines to alleviate, diminish or otherwise limit what can be done to animals”

Question 27

What do animal laws protect?

Answer 27

They protect animals for their intrinsic values, not their instrumental value.

Question 28

Who described the sociozoologic scale?

Answer 28

Arluke and Sanders. They describe animals as being given a moral worth dependent upon two aspects:

1. ) species membership dictate one layer of moral status
2. ) the usefulness or harmfulness of that species to humans denotes a second layer

Question 29

How is veterinary different to medicine?

Answer 29

animals are property (except wildlife)
all common animals dealth with by vets have an instrumental interest in liberty accompanied by preference autonomy

Both conditions could affect the concept of justice.

Question 30

Do UK animals have absolute protected rights?

Answer 30

No - they are always dependent on the purpose of the animal, the nature of the ownership and/or when unowned the nature of the harm intended. Wolff describes this condition for animals as a ‘near right’

Question 31

What is justice in the medical profession?and veterinary?

Answer 31

an appropriate standard of care should be delivered to all irrespective of non-medical criteria of individuals. Such criteria includes gender, race, IQ, linguistic accent, ethnicity, national origin and social status.

The veterinary profession relies heavily on non-medical patient data when determining what level of intervention should be given. The non-medical data are predominantly the animal’s purpose.

Question 32

What is a humane action?

Answer 32

assumed to mean compassionate and benevolent

Question 33

What is the ‘inconsistent triad’ in human healthcare as described by Weale and Butler?

Answer 33

1. ) High quality care (RCVS)
2. ) Equality in access
3. ) Affordability (regulated by profession itself)