We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2009
Community discourse about the moral status of animals is critical to the future of bioethics and, indeed, to the future of modern society. Thomasma and Loewy are to be commended for sharing thoughts and trying to attain some common ground. I am grateful to them for fostering discussion and allowing me to respond. I cannot endorse the negative tone of the end of their conversation, however. They end with serious concerns about the possibility of any agreement between themselves. Even though I perceive some moral differences between them, I do not believe that they are moral strangers. In this commentary I review the ways in which I agree and disagree with Thomasma and Loewy and conclude with some thoughts about the kind of broad ethical thinking we need to do to address our moral relationship to nonhuman, living creatures.
1. Nussbaum, B. Love's Knowledge: Essays on Philosophy and Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
2. Singer, P. Practical Ethics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.Google Scholar
3. Steinbock, B. Life Before Birth: The Moral and Legal Status of Embryos and Fetuses. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.Google Scholar
4. Masson, JM, McCarthy, S. When Elephants Weep: the Emotional Lives of Animals. New York: Dell Publishing, 1995.Google Scholar
5. Wilber, K. Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: the Spirit of Evolution. Boston: Shambhala, 1995.Google Scholar
6. Park, C. Our place in nature: naturalism, human mind and professional practice [dissertation]. Cleveland (OH): Case Western Reserve Univ., 1995.Google Scholar
7. See note 5, Wilber, 1995:517.Google Scholar
8. Potter, VR. Bioethics: Bridge to the Future. Englewood Cliffs (NJ): Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1971.Google Scholar
9. Leopold, A. A Sand County Almanac. New York: Oxford University Press, 1949Google Scholar.
10. Sessions, G, ed. Deep Ecology for the 21st Century: Readings on the Philosophy and Practice of the New Environment alism. Boston: Shambhala, 1995.Google Scholar
11. Reich, WT. The word “bioethics”: the struggle over its earliest meanings. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 1995;5(1):19–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12. Potter, VR, Whitehouse, PJ. Deep Bioethics: Towards a Liveable Future. In preparation.Google Scholar
13. Potter, VR. Global Bioethics: Building on the Leopold Legacy. East Lansing (MI): Michigan State University Press, 1988.Google Scholar
