License to Love A moral argument for the right for animals not to be killed

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2016-08-17
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en
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Animals play a significant role in people’s lives. As pets, but also as a source for food, clothes, education, pleasure and research. This thesis investigates whether it is possible, and on which grounds, to grant animals the right not to be killed. In order to find an answer, the field of deontological ethics has been researched. The act of killing itself is wrong, since for this act human beings are used as instruments. In the theories of Immanuel Kant and John Rawls animals are excluded and the rights’ theory of Tom Regan does not give a definite answer. That is why this thesis concludes with Martha Nussbaum’s application of the capabilities approach on animals. In its concluding chapter this thesis states that it is possible to grant animals the right not to be killed, but not because they have certain (moral) abilities or complex emotions, but because life has value itself and should therefore be protected out of compassion, etiquette and respect.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen