Animal Suffering and Rights: A Reply to Singer and Regan

Abstract

In this reply, I answer some of the criticisms of my article "'animal liberation': a critique" ("ethics", January 1978) made by peter singer and tom regan. Several ways in which they have misconstrued my position are discussed, As well as their charges that I have misrepresented theirs. My chief purpose here is to clarify and reaffirm, In most essential respects, My characterization of them as advocates of a doctrine of animal rights. I also reconsider the issue of the qualitative and quantitative equivalence of human and animal suffering, The notion of membership in a moral community, And the role of the capacity to enjoy and suffer in the ascription of moral rights.