Research Paper on Animal Rights and Moral Status is published for informational purposes only. The free papers are not written by our writers, they are contributed by users, so we are not responsible for the content of this free sample paper. If you want to buy a quality essay paper on Research Paper on Animal Rights and Moral Status at affordable prices please use our essay writing services offered by EssayEmpire.

In the arena of modern science, the greatest contribution to our understanding of animals was the nineteenth-century work of Charles Darwin, who demonstrated that humans evolved from other animal species. He also argued powerfully, if less influentially, that animals' and humans' capacities differ largely in degree and not in kind. Based on careful observations, Darwin contended that many animals possess general concepts, some reasoning ability, rudiments of moral sentiments, and complex emotions. While scientists have largely ignored these Darwinian claims until quite recently, the theory of evolution - especially in combination with modern genetics - has made the assertion of some unbridgeable cognitive gulf dividing humans and other animals much more difficult to sustain.

While a Westerner and an Easterner may both speak of life as sacred, only the Easterner is likely to have in mind all life. The Indian traditions of Jainism, Hinduism, and Buddhism all accept, in some form, the doctrine of ahimsa, which advocates non-injury to all living things and reverence for all life; these traditions also share a belief in reincarnation. Jains and Buddhists emphasize the interconnectedness of living things, recommend vegetarianism, and oppose traditional practices of animal sacrifice. Hinduism, which really comprises several distinct religions, has changed considerably in recent centuries due partly to the influence of Buddhists and Jains. Ahimsa has become more central in Hinduism while animal sacrifice has become less common. Many Hindus today believe that harming life will result in later suffering for the agent, grounding a strong animal-protection ethic in self-interest. Meanwhile, in the Far East, the ancient but still living tradition of Confucianism stresses a unity of all things in nature and perceives only differences in degree between human and animal capacities. Accordingly, followers of Confucius, despite granting humans significant priority, cultivate feelings of oneness with all life and sympathy for all beings who suffer.

On the American continents, the native peoples (who probably originated from Asia, crossing from present-day Russia to Alaska) tend to see nature as animated by spirit — in dramatic contrast to Descartes's mechanistic conception of nature. In keeping with their spiritual view of animal life, Native Americans generally accept some principle of respect for animals, while permitting the (respectful) killing and consumption of them.

In sum, the Western tradition has largely upheld the view that human beings have exclusive, or at least radically superior, moral status on the premiss that only humans are autonomous, rational, self-aware, or capable of understanding justice. Animals are generally seen as existing for human use. Non-Western traditions display significant differences both among themselves and in contrast to the West. Viewing them collectively, one often finds two strands pulling in different directions: a serious commitment to protecting animal welfare and respecting animal life - whether that life is valued intrinsically or as a means to one's own salvation and flourishing - but also the conviction that humans are more important than other animals.

While the Western tradition has generally been less respectful than nonWestern traditions towards animals, it has been in the West that the contemporary idea and politics of animal rights have emerged. The first significant animal rights movement began in nineteenth-century England, where the impetus was opposition to the use of unanaesthetized animals in scientific research. This movement inspired protests, legislative reforms in the United Kingdom, and the birth of numerous animal-protection organizations, primarily in the Englishspeaking world. But opposition to animal research declined early in the twentieth century and, despite the continuation of some of the early humane organizations, the movement lost momentum and became less visible to the public eye.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the political and intellectual climate in Great Britain, the United States, and several other Western countries was receptive to a new humane movement. The civil rights movement's opposition to racial and sexual discrimination opened a door to rejecting other forms of discrimination. Concerns about pollution and destruction of the environment created logical and cultural room for heightened concern for individual animals, who are obviously affected by the state of the environment. In science, the once-dominant theory of behaviourism - which prohibits discussion of "inner states" of animals (and humans), making it difficult for compassion towards animals to find a scientific foothold - was beginning its protracted demise. In 1976, Donald Griffin published The Question of Animal Awareness, marking the birth of an increasingly influential scientific movement: cognitive ethology, which studies animal behaviour in the context of evolutionary theory and posits such "inner states" as beliefs, desires, and feelings. And the publication in 1975 of Peter Singer's Animal Liberation, which combined powerful philosophical reasoning with accessible writing, was a key event.

It was within this receptive cultural space that the recent animal rights movement emerged. Important developments included the formation of the British Hunt Saboteurs Association in 1963 and the founding of the environmental group Greenpeace in 1971 and of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in 1980. Today the animal rights movement includes hundreds of organizations, millions of members, and some considerable legislative breakthroughs - such as the highly progressive Swedish Animal Welfare Act (1988), the British Veal Crate Ban (1990), and the International Dolphin Conservation Act (1992), to name just a few. In the scientific community, the study of alternatives to animal research has become respectable in some quarters. And whereas individuals who abstained from meat on ethical grounds appeared eccentric twenty or thirty years ago, moral vegetarianism has entered the mainstream and is spreading rapidly.

Thus Western culture has changed, becoming more receptive to the idea of animal rights and more serious in exploring associated issues regarding animals' moral status and mental lives. We are no longer surprised to see animal activists on the news. Many people today are grappling with questions concerning the proper treatment of animals. They want to improve their understanding and appreciation of the issues associated with animal rights.

Free essays are not written to satisfy your specific instructions. You can order a term paper, research paper or custom essay on Research Paper on Animal Rights and Moral Status at our site which offers professional essay writing services. Get your high quality custom paper at affordable price. EssayEmpire is the best solution for those who seek help in essay writing related to Research Paper on Animal Rights and Moral Status and other relevant topics.