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From 2012.igem.org

Freed the frogs!

Why should ethics concern animals?

We will present three ways of integrating animals in our moral community with the different consequences drawn for animal experimentation. The two firsts authors, Tom Regan and Peter Singer are generally considered as classics or foundations of animal ethics, the third author, Martha Nussbaum, retained our attention because her attention for animals is embedded in broader theory of economy and ethics, inspired by the Nobel Prize of Economy (1998) Amartya K. Sen.

Tom Regan and The Case for Animal Rights

Peter Singer and Animal Liberation

Martha Nussbaum and Capabilities

These three approaches of animal ethics, despite their differences, have in common to emphasize on the political aspect of the animal question. Taking seriously animals as beings that deserve a moral care implies changing many of our habits of consumption. These required changes are quite close in their quality to those recommended by many ecological theories: being less excessive and more attentive the world in which we are living. All this get quite interesting if we rapidly sum-up the ambition of animal ethics and ecology: making life better, one being at a time. Sounds familiar?

Animal biotechnology and human/non human relationships