Do animals have a right to life?

Abstract

My argument in this section turns on considerations about the
natural “right to life” that we humans are sometimes said uniquely to posses,
and to possess to an equal degree. What I will try to show is that arguments
that might be used in defense of the claim that all human beings have this
natural right, to an equal extent, would also show that animals are possessors
of it, whereas arguments that might be used to show that animals do not have
this right would also show that not all human beings do either. Just as in the
preceding section, however, so here too, a disclaimer to completeness is in order.
I have not been able to consider all the arguments that might be advanced in
this context, all that I have been able to do is consider what I think are the most
important ones.