Abstract

In this essay the author, after having distinguished and analyzed four options on the moral status of animals, argues in favour of the third, for which animals undergo an unjustifiable harm not only from the suffering caused to them by many human practises, but also from a death induced in advance. Finally, he defends the principle of the equal consideration of the interests and suggests that the value of life of sentient beings is directly proportional to their cognitive, emotional and social complexity.