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Why Animal Suffering Matters: Philosophy, Theology and Practical Ethics

21st September 2009

Linzey shows that many of the justifications for inflicting animal suffering in fact provide grounds for protecting them. Because animals, the argument goes, lack reason or souls or language, harming them is not an offence. Linzey suggests that just the opposite is true, that the inability of animals to give or withhold consent, their inability to represent their interests, their moral innocence, and their relative defencelessness all compel us not to harm them. Linzey pioneers a new theory about why animal suffering matters, maintaining that sentient animals, like children, should be accorded a special moral status.