Issues of Animal Life and Death

What Issues of Animal Life and Death covers

The use of animals for food, in experiment and for sport, and how natural moral law, situation ethics and virtue ethics each assess it.

The 4 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Natural Moral Law and AnimalsRecall questions on why using animals for food is permitted and on applying double effect to intensive farming.Open →
• Applying the Three Theories to Animal IssuesRecall questions on the questions situation ethics and virtue ethics ask about using animals, and how all three theories treat intensive farming, experimentation, cloning, blood sports and xenotransplantation.Open →
• Assessing the Theories on Animal EthicsRecall questions on the strengths of each theory and on the charge that natural moral law is anthropocentric.Open →
• Animal Ethics and the Three TheoriesWhy natural moral law generally permits eating animals, and how all three theories judge intensive farming, animal experimentation, animal cloning, blood sports and xenotransplantation.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Issues of Animal Life and Death further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Speciesism vs Anthropocentrism

  Speciesism: giving less weight to an interest because of the species that has it. Anthropocentrism: treating human beings as the centre of moral concern.

• Sentience vs Personhood

  Sentience: the capacity to feel pleasure and pain. Personhood: the status of a being with rationality and self-awareness.

• Animal welfare vs Animal rights

  Animal welfare: the position that animals may be used if suffering is minimised. Animal rights: the position that animals have claims that forbid such use altogether.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   According to natural moral law, why is it permissible to use animals as food?

   Model answer

   Animals exist in a natural hierarchy below humans and may be used for human sustenance because this accords with the natural order and promotes human flourishing.

2. 2

   When applying the principle of double effect to intensive farming, what is identified as the good effect being sought?

   Model answer

   Food production for human sustenance.

3. 3

   In the double effect analysis of intensive farming, what is identified as the bad effect?

   Model answer

   Animal suffering.

4. 4

   When applying double effect to intensive farming, what question must be asked about the relationship between the bad effect and the agent's intention?

   Model answer

   Whether the animal suffering is directly intended or merely foreseen as a side effect of food production.

5. 5

   What proportionality assessment must be made when applying double effect to intensive farming?

   Model answer

   Whether the good effect (food production) is proportionate to the bad effect (animal suffering).

6. 6

   Explain why natural moral law might permit intensive farming despite animal suffering.

   Model answer

   If the suffering is merely foreseen rather than intended, the action of food production is not intrinsically wrong, and the good of feeding humans is proportionate to the harm, then double effect may justify the practice.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Issues of Animal Life and Death revision questions

What does Issues of Animal Life and Death cover in AQA A-Level Religious Studies?

4 subtopics: natural moral law and animals, applying the three theories to animal issues, assessing the theories on animal ethics and animal ethics and the three theories. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Issues of Animal Life and Death organised?

By the AQA 7062 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.