Ecocentrism rejects the premise that humans occupy a privileged place in nature. Non-human nature has intrinsic value, independent of human values and human consciousness; thus, limits are placed on the extent of human prerogatives to use and alter nature. Noninterference in naturally evolving systems is a primary duty. Ethical priority is given to wholes over parts.

Defense of Animal Rights/Animal Liberation

The issue of the ethics surrounding the use of animals in medical and other biological experimentation for purposes of research is linked inextricably to the animal rights/animal liberation movement, which provides the strongest and most vocal opposition to the practice. Proponents of medical and other scientific experimentation involving the use of non human animals contend that prohibitions or restrictions on the use of such animals in medical and other experimentation will impede the development of new medicines, retard the refinement of surgical techniques and the training of surgeons, and increase the costs of medical care for human beings. Proponents of medical and other scientific experimentation further justify the use of animals in such activities on the ground that the use of human beings for such purposes is unthinkable. T

1. Dogs were fed pesticides and bombarded with radiation until they lay bleeding from the mouth and anus. The purpose of this experiment was to determine safe dosage levels for human beings.

The results of this investigation clearly indicate that the ethical framework of animal rights/animal liberation is defensible within a philosophical context. Whether the ethical framework can become a feasible paradigm at the political level of society in the foreseeable future is a more difficult question to answer. What can be predicted with confidence, however, is that animal rights/animal liberation advocates will continue the work.

Sessions, G. (Ed.). Deep Ecology for the 21st Century. Boston: Shambhala Publishers, 1995.

Hoffheimer, L. S., and Downey, M. "New Issues in Brain Research." Health Systems Review, 24, (1991): 34-37.

When most Americans think of animal rights and animal welfare, they think of the use of animals in biomedical research, or they think of fur seals. Animals are used, however, for many other purposes, and, depending upon one's perspective, these uses are either justified or unjustified.

In the sixteenth century, Rene Descartes added to the philosophical underpinning of the idea that human beings had a greater worth than other animals. Descartes developed the doctrine that animals are pure machines, whereas human beings are machines with minds. Descartes held that to attribute minds to animals would threaten the religious beliefs of human beings, because it would be impious to think that human beings have no greater hopes for the afterlife tha