- #281
russ_watters
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So clearly, what rights we and the animals get is a complicated question. Have you worked out yet specifically what rights which animals get and why?Dissident Dan said:The smarter ones are afforded different rights and privileges, but that is not to say that the mentally-handicapped have none at all. What I was saying that intelligence doesn't matter in the yes or no question of whether we have rights, not the extent to which those rights exist. Obviously, you do not let a person with the intelligence of a dog drive a car.
And backing up again...
If I kill an animal by shooting it in the head, it will experience nothing out of the ordinary right up until the instant of death. If I give an animal an OD of morphine it will experience intense pleasure until it loses consciousness and dies.The relevant criterion to whether or not an organism deserves protection is whether or not it can experience.
So therefore, giving an animal an OD of morphine is a good thing to do morally and shooting one in the head has no moral implications, positive or negative, whatsoever. Right?