Animal Rights Style and Subsrance An Assesment Essay

Animal Rights Style and Subsrance An Assesment - Essay Example Why Worry About the Animals (Elshtain, 1995, pp 424-432). There is no doubt that the writer is morally opposed to the 'use and abuse' of animals and uses this piece to appeal on a deeply emotional level. This is made immediately apparent by the list of 'factual' information she presents - which succeeds at once in horrifying and shocking the reader. Rational analysis suggests this could be interpreted as a misrepresentation of references, as the statements stand alone without contextual support. However, they do signal intent and are backed up by the use of the words of an 'expert witness', biologist John E. McArdle (McArdle as cited in Elshtain) The philosophical references to Descarte and Kant, and to Western rationalism are a form of 'post hoc ergo propter hoc', used to affect the emotions and coupled with grisly visual imagery. No matter how a reader thinks, words such as "confine, cripple, infect or dismember animals in the interest of human knowledge.." (Elshtain, 425) are emotionally loaded and very persuasive. Historical information regarding the growth of animal welfare groups and the inclusion of feminist connections add weight to the argument in favor of abandoning practices that harm animals. This is supported by facts on animal suffering in various situations, ranging from factory farming to radiation, from laboratory conditions to the LD50 testing for household products' toxicity. Personal anecdotal material is used to express the writer's view; her own experience as a polio victim, the visit to the slaughterhouse are both emotional issues and images which are rationalized to contribute to the stance that, "We humans do not deserve peace of min on this issue. "Our sleep should be troubled and our days riddled with ethical difficulties." (Elshtain 431) The writer continues with more horrifying detail, to the Us vs Them discourse, by appealing to the reader as one of those 'reasonable people' who would not let this state of affairs continue. This is a powerful and personal piece of writing, incorporating plenty of factual material, posing the moral argument emotionally, and ultimately disturbing, while appealing to the basic ethical desire to do no harm to any living creature. The Moral Case for Experimentation on Animals. H. J. McCloskey (1987) The article opens like a courtroom speech from a few hundred years ago; it appears as a structured defense of a concept that will be proved unquestionably innocent and right. As such, it comes across as rhetorically authoritative and sets out to convince the reader that "the moral caserests both on the goods to be realized, the evils to be avoided thereby, and on the duty to respect persons and to secure them in their natural and moral rights." (McCloskey 1987, 458) By constant repetition of words such as 'prima facie' 'persons' and 'justification' the writer establishes authority, apparently in the fields of law, ethics, medicine and the treatment of animals, not to mention philosophy as a whole. By his detailed explanation of the morally correct way to treat experimental animals, he appears to be equivocating when he