Human animals and nonhuman animals differ in so many ways. With such interesting topic, one may be tempted to define the word human. I believe one of the definitions will be relating to or belonging to mankind. The biological characteristics tend to give us a clear distinction between the two types of animals. First of all, human are considered first class animals who are called Homo sapiens. The word Homo sapiens derives from the Latin word which means “ wise man” or “knowing man”. Human animals are been given the power by God to be over all nonhuman animals. The branch of Biology which relates to animal kingdom; Zoology tends to distinguish animals with respects to their different structure, physiology and classification. Human animals have characteristics that make them superior over nonhuman animals. Human animals have well developed brains, which give them the ability to think, invent things that have great impact of nonhuman animals. Nonhuman animals are subject to human animals therefore they are not the same.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Human/ Nonhuman Animals
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Tom Regan, in "The Case For Animal Rights," states that some animals would be considered "subjects of a life" based on their mental capacity while others wouldn't. If an animal is considered a subject to a life then this creature has inherent value. All creatures, human and nonhuman animals, with inherent value should be treated equally. Regan states, "It enjoins us to treat all those individuals having inherent value in ways that respect their value, and thus it requires respectful treatment of all who satisfy the subject-of-a-life criterion. Whether they are moral agents or patients, we must treat them in ways that respect their equal inherent value"(23). This means that within the group of creatures with inherent value, there should not be any superiority or inferiority because their value makes them equal. Humans should not be considered first class animals. Even though nonhuman animals and human animals are not the same, they do have the same value which means that they should be treated the same. Nonhuman animals should not be subjects to human animals because we all posses the same value. Nonhuman animals in the subject of a life category have developed brains and do have the ability to think. All subjects of a life are equal in value.
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