Paper Sample: Moral Duties Observed Regarding Animals and the General Environment

Human beings tend to live harmoniously among themselves in their residential communities by being considerate regarding how good and frequently they look after others. The relationship portrays a morally acceptable way of life among themselves as it is a reflection of interdependence in humanity. However, there seems to be how human beings have neglected other parts of and creatures within their environments as well as places of residence. An extreme focus has been channeled to the way of a good life among humans themselves to the extent that, they have neglected their moral responsibilities and duties concerning taking care of the environments that accommodate them, as well as other animals that surround them, some of which they rare as their livestock or pets. Human beings should observe their moral concerns about the well-being of other animals around them and their surrounding environment. The reason is that there is nothing distinctive concerning humanity which is in supports of the notion that non-humans do not own moral status while humans do. Humankind has a moral responsibility to intervene in the prevention of or mitigating the suffering of the environment and other animals. The paper, therefore, identifies and discusses why moral duties regarding other animals and the general environment, should remain to be genuine altruism, and not with relation to the aspects of human activities.

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As per the argument of Peter Singer’s “All Animals are Equal”, human beings are just but another set of animals according to science. Despite the urge that human beings have roles to morally be considerate regarding the amount of concern that they should channel toward the matters of mitigating the suffering of other animals and the environment, there is still social imbalance and discrimination within humanity. In as much as there are arguments concerning the fact that all human beings are equal, with the social considerations of race, gender and culture, it is still painful to believe that all humans are never equal (Singer, 1989). The reason is that people possess different abilities which occur in a wide range of variance. For instance, individuals have different IQs, moral capacities, sensitivity and benevolence, degrees of experience with pain and pleasure, as well as diverse ways of communication. In short, humans should value and treat each other with a lot of equality and concern, despite their social and biological variations.

In his book “Moral Standing, the Value of Lives, and Speciesism”, Frey argues that there is no possibility of according animals the very rights that humans have, as they do not possess any voice or a belief that is known and notable among them. Therefore, humans have an evident superiority over other animals. However, he adds that, even though they lack these privileges, humans as their superiors, should value and treat them morally with a lot of respect and concern as part of the society. Regarding the matters of anatomy, animal parts should be used to remedy any problems that human beings face where possible, not because animals undervalue humankind, but because human life is more worthy than that of an animal (Frey, 1988). For that, animals are important members of society, just like humans, though humankind will always come first.

According to Michael Allen Fox’s “The Vegetarian Imperative”, animals were meant to serve various functions, including services such as the source of food, or being the food themselves through providing meat, among other roles to the benefit of humankind. He adds that the sourcing of meat from animals began in the ancient ages of human generations. Therefore there is nothing wrong with slaughtering animals for meat, as long as it is necessary for the satisfaction of different human needs that are regarded as important. It thus, implies that animals are also essential members of any given societal environment, as they mean to assist humans via their roles and uses, and that is why they exist (Fox, 1993). Although animals are parts of human life and for that, they should receive moral consideration and treatment from humans, due to how much we benefit from them. The consumption of vegetables also should apply to humans for the avoidance of unnecessary animal slaughtering.

Ronald Sandler’s “The Value of Nature”, talks about the importance of protecting the general physical environment that hosts human beings. Every environment that surrounds humankind plays a vital role in both its existence and that of humans. I imply that the occurrence of the natural surroundings depends on humans, in the same way humans depend on them (Sandler, 2013). It, therefore, brings in the factor of interdependence in the relationship between humans and their natural surroundings. For instance, human beings breathe pure oxygen comfortably due to the existing natural vegetation that borders them, the same way, plants in the natural environment significantly depend on carbon dioxide breathed out by humans for their purposes of nutrition, growth, and reproduction. The latter, as well as the perfection of many other relationships between these two species, depends upon how humankind morally protects its environment.

“Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments”, stages Thomas Hill’s concerns about the erosion of natural environments for minor and selfish short-term interests. These intentions are often propelled by individuals’ needs and desires to replace the natural environment with either artificial features, or different impressions that are under the influence of modernity. These activities lead to the dereliction of the naturally occurring environmental features that have lasted for generations. The issues of property rights have made it quite tough to intervene and prevent the destruction of natural environments and features especially those that are situated within private properties (Hill, 1983). These acts call for the moral responsibility of humankind to preserve and defend the natural environment. Consequently, every other animal they host, as it will favor the existence and comfortable life of future generations of humankind, other animals, as well as the natural vegetation.

In Stephen Gardiner’s “A Perfect Moral Storm: Climate Change, Intergenerational Ethics, and the Problem of Moral Corruption”, the evidence necessary for the provision of evidence regarding the decisions about the components of climatic system interferences, which relates to the anthropogenic dangers, relays from some vital information (Gardiner, 2006). The information often relates to the matters of science in technical, natural as well as social relationships. These aspects are equally fundamental in the satisfaction of other areas of human and animal life and existence. However, they yield consequences pegged to global climate change. The implication is that nearly all scientific human activities depend upon the social, natural, and technical aspects, failure to which most activities that benefit human life at a more significant percentage will curtail. The fact that human beings are the most prominent part of the world, they must value what supports their existence and every aspect that promotes their well-being, whether it harms other animals as well as the surrounding. The latter is the same justification for the continued global climate change. Humankind is genuinely aware of its causes, its consequences to the future generations of human beings, other animals as well and plants. Despite these acknowledgments, humankind is still persistent with these climate-changing acts, just to make their lives better, with less consideration of other non-human creatures and their future generations. These perpetrations must therefore be executed with a lot of moral concerns and care for other animals, as well as non-human creatures, for the safety and equality of everyone.

Conclusion

In essence, human beings remain to be the most superior and more important than other animals and creatures. They should, however, utilize the privilege of protecting the well-being of the rest of the environment as they all depend on each other for harmonious existence, although non-human creatures tend to have no voice and apparent rights. With the most priority accorded to the existence, well-being, and comfort of human beings as the most important members of every environment, they should acknowledge the importance of other non-human members worth a considerate amount of consideration too. As a result, the moral duties among human beings regarding other non-human animals and the general environment should remain to be genuine altruism, and not relation to the aspects of human activities.

References

Fox, M. A. (1993). Environmental Ethics and the Ideology of Meat Eating. Between the species, 9(3), 208-216. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2094&context=bts

Frey, R. G. (1988). Moral standing, the value of lives, and speciesism. Between the Species, 4(3), 190-200. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1710&context=bts

Gardiner, S. M. (2006). A perfect moral storm: Climate change, intergenerational ethics and the problem of moral corruption. Environmental values, 15(3), 291-302. https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/whp/ev/2006/00000015/00000003/art00013

Hill, T. E. (1983). Ideals of human excellence and preserving natural environments. Environmental Ethics, 5(3), 281-290. https://www.pdcnet.org/enviroethics/content/enviroethics_1983_0005_0003_0211_0224

Sandler, R. L. (2013). Environmental virtue ethics. International Encyclopaedia of Ethics, 263-271. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/9781444367072.wbiee090

Singer, P. (1989). All animals are equal. Other books by the same author, 1(5), 181-189. https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/32498342/Basic-Readings.pdf?1386379032=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DBasic_Readings.pdf&Expires=1599786200&Signature=Lh7Dc6~AJpbo~4VfLgp0d1AfO5URBC-89PL7nU7lNcwgsUeY4F3gXatra6kmGYVuVepJO20~Q-WW3JviE1H3sKdpSbsn2HUpcqV48ISqx8F9z5c1Y2R9R6kYP-iqZF3VIimT9lMxa91cEKwgIFYenaCN8bUYGyrfpyw8s8yZfi9B6wX2eYeXRK2ZjzesbeIFeKC4PXNHEPE14CLGAXq2Pgc-zuMVKCeIII9O4Fic~~TbGWr7xqFatEcmRXH4pPnYCH7b-SWj9HzHG~JwUcBjYpdghwgYdIfTZ6f6x0XYsRV5ksSObXO7ZjI5Ugy2gnrPiRBlLViNQkrT0lkJCpXkmA__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA#page=209