A TEORIA DOS DIREITOS ANIMAIS HUMANOS E N O-HUMANOS, DE TOM REGAN

What place should non-human animals have in an acceptable moral system? Regan s rights view points out to coherence as expression of a rational demand and grounds moral rights of human and non-human animals on the principle of equality. What all human beings and some animals (especially mammals) have in common is the property of being a subject-of-alife, i. e., of being sensitive self-conscious individuals. From this property Regan requests the equal inherent value of all subjects-of-a-life; such value will be converted into a right of be respected (we cannot use them merely as a means to our ends). Animals still exist on the borderline of our moral concepts. Given these considerations, Regan concludes that we must radically alter the ways in which we treat animals.