This thesis explores whether the killing of animals for human consumption is permissible and the moral limits of this permissibility. I am going to propose and evaluate an argument as to why it is...Show moreThis thesis explores whether the killing of animals for human consumption is permissible and the moral limits of this permissibility. I am going to propose and evaluate an argument as to why it is permissible to slaughter farm animals if this does not harm them. It is called the permissibility of larding argument. I will also look at several possible objections against this view. The most important objection is that if a lack of harm can make the killing of animals permissible, than it would also be permissible to kill humans if it does not harm them. Another fundamental issue I will call the baseline of comparison objection. A final issue has to deal with the credibility of the first premise of the argument, which is that every wrong involves harming. I will conclude that the permissibility of larding argument is untenable because it does not hold up well against the baseline of comparison objection and the objection to the first premise.Show less
It seems to have become a tendency to focus on the negative consequences of higher migration flows. More open borders would supposedly undermine the sovereignty of states and lead to an unfavorable...Show moreIt seems to have become a tendency to focus on the negative consequences of higher migration flows. More open borders would supposedly undermine the sovereignty of states and lead to an unfavorable lack of control over who enters the country and who does not. Yet I believe there are many good reasons to defend looser border controls and actually far fewer reasons to support strict immigration policies. The conviction with which almost every country in the world defends the right to leave a country, while they simultaneously resist to acknowledge a subsequent right to enter another country, is suprising to me. As Phillip Cole pointed out “one cannot consistently assert that there is a fundamental human right to emigration but no such right to immigration; the liberal asymmetry position is morally ethical, but also conceptually incoherent” (Cole, 2000, 46). Cole argues that in case of nation state, the right to exit one’s state is dependent upon entry elsewhere because there is no livable ‘space’ of statelessness (2011, 203-204). I share the same conviction that the notions of depart and entrance are conceptually intertwined. An analysis of the concept of rights, duties and democratic legitimacy will demonstrate that there is a moral right to leave and a subsequent moral right to enter a country.Show less
This thesis argues that, based on a deontological rights-based approach, meat production should decrease. There has been convincing research to argue that current industrial farming methods for...Show moreThis thesis argues that, based on a deontological rights-based approach, meat production should decrease. There has been convincing research to argue that current industrial farming methods for meat are unsustainable, but there has been little research on the relationship between meat production and poverty levels, and what (if anything) this means for states and their moral duties. This paper is divided into two parts; firstly, it explains the causal link between meat consumption and poverty, and introduces the Capability Approach. Secondly, it looks at how governments can undertake this challenge: soft, monetary and coercive measures are evaluated. I conclude that not only is there good reason for states to reduce meat consumption, but many have the wherewithal to successfully do it, and therefore prove to be a crucial part of the process.Show less
