Ethics Poll

[KittenKiller]

http://www.aedilemma.net

What kind of ethicists are you?

42% Utilitarian
8% Contractual
17% Relational
17% Animal rights
17% Respect for Nature

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[akitavet]

79% utilitarian
21% animal rights

 

[VelcroSky]

67% Utilitarian
17% Animal Rights
17% Respect for nature

 

[Sassygirl]

Here's mine:

Contractarian-8%
Utilitarian- 67%
Animal Rights- 17%
Respect for Nature- 8%http://ae.imcode.com/en/1022http://ae.imcode.com/en/1010

 

[wildfocus]

utilitarian 42%
relational 8%
animal rights 17%
respect for nature 33%

 

[hoodle]

75% utilitarian
8% animal rights
17% respect for nature

 

[Pennymare]

75% utilitarian

25% respect for nature

...but I had to compromise on a couple questions b/c I didn't agree with any of the logics (i.e. the lion club question).

 

[ri23]

75% utilitarian
8% animal rights
17% respect for nature

Though, as Pennymare said, some of the questions (the lion cub question) didn't have a really good answer.

 

[VelcroSky]

75% utilitarian
8% animal rights
17% respect for nature

Though, as Pennymare said, some of the questions (the lion cub question) didn't have a really good answer.

Agreed, I didn't really like any of the answers on that question.

 

[ckgilabert]

i said that the lioness should be spayed. but i'd rather that the lions be seperated. why have them give birth...if your'e gonna kill them? i dont get it.


this is mine:

75% utilitarian
17% animal rights
8% respect for nature

 

[Angelo84]

utilitarian 84%
relational 8%
respect for nature 8%

 

[laurafinn]

utilitarian 58%
respect for nature 25%
contractarian 8%
relational 8%

 

[Vet2be2012]

25% utilitarian
67% Animal Rights
8% Respect for nature

 

[anc84]

so I'm stupid and just randomly voted without seeing there was a survey... so one vote for "respect for nature" should be "utilitarian"
Here are my results:

Utilitarian: 58%
Respect for Nature: 17%
Contractarian: 8%
Relational: 8%
Animal Rights: 8%

 

[agr1365]

42% Utilitarian
33% Contractarian
25% Respect for Nature

 

[tiddlywinks]

83% Utilitarian
8% Contractarian
8% Respect for nature

 

[Emio]

so what the heck is contractarian?

Contractarian - 0
Utilitarian - 67%
Relational - 17%
Animal Rights - 17%
Respect for Nature - 0

that last one's a joke. i love Nature more than animal rights.

 

[PiddlingFish]

Contractarian
6%
Utilitarian
6%
Relational
17%
Animal Rights
56%
Respect for Nature
17%

 

[anc84]

"The Contractarian View

“Morality is based on agreement”
The basic contractarian idea is that ethical obligations originate in mutual agreements or contracts between people. Moral duties are similar to the terms and conditions we sign up to when opening a bank account."

It goes on more to explain it further...there are descriptions of all the views on that website.

 

[ShelterGirl]

83% Utilitarian
17% Respect for Nature

 

[Hollycozza]

Utilitarian = 67%

Animal rights, contractarian, relational, respect for nature = 8% each!

Agree about the lion question, what ridiculous options!!!

 

[Keygirl1]

50% animal rights
25% utilitarian
25% respect for nature

 

[QTkitty]

Utilitarian: 50%
Animal Rights: 33%
Respect for Nature: 17%

 

[kate_g]

i said that the lioness should be spayed. but i'd rather that the lions be seperated. why have them give birth...if your'e gonna kill them? i dont get it.

Another vote for that being the worst-informed selection of multiple-choice answers ever. I believe what many zoos *actually* do is use hormonal contraceptives - though maybe they know more than I give them credit for and that doesn't work in lions. You don't want to actually sterilize because pretty much all endangered/threatened zoo animals are part of "species survival plan" breeding programs and you want to keep the genetic diversity high in the captive population. But yeah... Not breeding them in the first place seems like an obvious answer, or (gasp!) aborting the litter before she gives birth if you have an "accident".

Oh, I was 67% utilitarian, which was lower than I expected. Of course with only 12 questions a single answer was worth 8%, and it really galled me to have to give the "animal rights" answer on one question for lack of better choices.

 

[4theanimals]

Utilitarian 75%
Animal Rights 25%

And I concur about the possible answers to some of the questions.

 

[OceanAngel]

Utilitarian- 50%
Respect for Nature- 33%
Animal Rights- 8%
Relational- 8%

I definitely agree with other posts about the options for some questions. It seems not many people fall into contractarian, which I still am not 100% understanding based on the definition.

 

[AuburnPreVet]

I flunked...

 

[ratbandit]

Another vote for that being the worst-informed selection of multiple-choice answers ever. I believe what many zoos *actually* do is use hormonal contraceptives - though maybe they know more than I give them credit for and that doesn't work in lions. You don't want to actually sterilize because pretty much all endangered/threatened zoo animals are part of "species survival plan" breeding programs and you want to keep the genetic diversity high in the captive population. But yeah... Not breeding them in the first place seems like an obvious answer, or (gasp!) aborting the litter before she gives birth if you have an "accident".
.

You can use contraceptives on lions, you can usually tell which ones are on contraceptives b/c they have "pseudo" manes. At least that's how it is at Philly.

 

[CookieBear]

83% Utilitarian
17% Respect for Nature

Ditto.

83% Utilitarian
17% Respect for Nature.

 

[thesonofdarwin]

Hrm.. I found that test a tad biased. Multiple shades of Yes or No for particular questions, then one, single, extreme response for the other side for quite a few situations That said, I'm not particularly surprised by the results as it sums me up nicely.

Utilitarian: 25%
Animal Rights: 50%
Respect for Nature: 25%

 

[MissBehavior]

Utilitarian- 50
Respect for Nature- 33
Contractarian & Relational- 8 each
Animal Rights- 0

I would have expected Relational to be higher than Respect for Nature. I also don't understand why there's a picture of the cover of "Animal Liberation" on the Utilitarian page.

 

[MissBehavior]

Erm, killing time til Grey's Anatomy starts... Have any of you tried the "game" with the cases? I tried the slaughter one, and now I've jumped to 22% Animal Rights ! Not sure if I understand their reasoning. I wasn't opposed to slaughter, just wanted it done humanely, including religious slaughter. Regardless, I think this website is a wonderful tool to get people thinking about these issues. Thanks for posting!

 

[thesonofdarwin]

I tried the slaughter one, and now I've jumped to 22% Animal Rights !

You make it sound like that's a bad thing! *Looks at his 50%*
I'll have to do it when I get home... watch my Animal Rights score jump to 80% afterwards

 

[kate_g]

You make it sound like that's a bad thing!

It is... Because her concern is for animal *welfare*, which has very little to do with animal *rights*. I firmly believe that animal welfare is a very "utilitarian" concept - in that healthier, happier animals generally lead to better outcomes for humanity as well.

The fact that people who claim to be experts in the ethics of veterinary medicine (and are setting themselves up as a resource for people to build their own ethical awareness) confuse and confound those two *very* different philosophies is pretty disturbing.

 

[thesonofdarwin]

The fact that people who claim to be experts in the ethics of veterinary medicine (and are setting themselves up as a resource for people to build their own ethical awareness) confuse and confound those two *very* different philosophies is pretty disturbing.

This is not just an animal rights/welfare problem. It's central to all philosophical debate. Just take a look at an ethics journal and every expert will have a slightly different interpretation of key phrases (in this case animal rights vs welfare). That's not going to change. What good philosophers do is clearly define their use of those key phrases, often times going through sickening lengths to do so, before they make their stance or point known making use of those key phrases.

It's not unusual or surprising that experts in the field define animal welfare and rights in different ways. And one couldn't call them experts in the field if they didn't make clear their definitions.

From Intro to Philosophy up to high level Bioethics, many students in my classes had an incredibly hard time understanding this. Tests were pure essay and if you didn't define your phrases of debate before making your stance for/against, you automatically failed.

So while you may not agree with an experts use of animal rights (or welfare), as long as they are sticking to their use of those terms they are fine.

 

[Cheska]

67% Utilitarian
25% Animal Rights
8% Respect for Nature

Very cool quiz Kitten! I'm taking Agricultural Ethics this semester, so it ties in perfectly with what we have talked about this semester, I'll be passing the link around my class next week. I absolutely love that class, our professor is awesome! (Those of you going to CSU will have a similar class with my prof, Dr. Bernard Rollin) If any of you are interested in animal related ethics and welfare he has several books with really interesting stories. He also gives lectures at various conferences, so if you ever get the chance to hear him it is well worth it.

 

[kate_g]

Just take a look at an ethics journal and every expert will have a slightly different interpretation of key phrases (in this case animal rights vs welfare).
...
From Intro to Philosophy up to high level Bioethics, many students in my classes had an incredibly hard time understanding this.

OK so thanks for the lesson in how to philosophize correctly and all. BUT... the difference between rights and welfare is so ingrained into veterinary culture as to be on pretty much every list of potential interview questions I've ever seen, right next to "what would you do if a client wanted you to euthanize their healthy animal." You're expected to know the difference, and that there *is* a difference. I'm not just quibbling on some details of their definitions, here. I mean, OK, they only had 4 categories so you've got to do some lumping. But I really think an informed, responsible partitioning of veterinary ethical approaches would not categorize all support for animal welfare issues as "animal rights" if *only* because of the political implications of using that strong a buzzword.

 

[aggiegolf]

100% animal rights. Unless it's a toy poodle. Kill it.

 

[dyachei]

OK so thanks for the lesson in how to philosophize correctly and all. BUT... the difference between rights and welfare is so ingrained into veterinary culture as to be on pretty much every list of potential interview questions I've ever seen, right next to "what would you do if a client wanted you to euthanize their healthy animal." You're expected to know the difference, and that there *is* a difference. I'm not just quibbling on some details of their definitions, here. I mean, OK, they only had 4 categories so you've got to do some lumping. But I really think an informed, responsible partitioning of veterinary ethical approaches would not categorize all support for animal welfare issues as "animal rights" if *only* because of the political implications of using that strong a buzzword.

I'm pretty sure when I was looking at this, that there are definitions for the AVMA. So, I agree with you 100 %....this quiz needs to not call it animal rights. In fact, as a vet, it is hard to be for animal rights, especially in cases with euthanasia. I'm pretty sure it's one of those things they frown upon in interviews (this is just from my own experience preparing).

Here's a link describing the difference:
http://www.animalwelfarecouncil.com/html/aw/rights.php

 

[KittenKiller]

It is... Because her concern is for animal *welfare*, which has very little to do with animal *rights*. I firmly believe that animal welfare is a very "utilitarian" concept - in that healthier, happier animals generally lead to better outcomes for humanity as well.

Honestly, the veterinary profession seems to have a very dogmatic take on "animal welfare" versus "animal rights." Like you said in a different post, its a common interview question and they want to hear you echo the dichotomy the way the veterinary profession formulates it (ie animal welfare GOOD animal rights BAD).

But the most famous animal rights philosopher, Peter Singer, founded his animal rights philosophy 100% on utilitarianism. Its actually an animal welfarist argument to the core, based entirely on minimizing pain and increasing comfort. I actually think making this animal welfare/animal rights distinction is a rhetorical device used by people who dont take their moral philosophy so seriously to justify their actions (eating meat, testing on animals, etc) to themselves. They also use it as a way to brush off people who take animal welfare to a greater extreme than they do and call them "crazies".

Oh just to be clear, Im not an animal rights person at all. I simply dont believe in moral philosophy at all (or im morally depraved, take your pick)

 

[seaturtlegirl]

58% Utilitarian
25% Animal Rights
17% Respect for Nature
0% Contractarian
0% Relational

 

[TheDuck]

Contractarian 0%
Utilitarian 17%
Relational 17%
Animal Rights 42%
Respect for Nature 25%

 

[MissBehavior]

It is... Because her concern is for animal *welfare*, which has very little to do with animal *rights*. I firmly believe that animal welfare is a very "utilitarian" concept - in that healthier, happier animals generally lead to better outcomes for humanity as well.

The fact that people who claim to be experts in the ethics of veterinary medicine (and are setting themselves up as a resource for people to build their own ethical awareness) confuse and confound those two *very* different philosophies is pretty disturbing.

EXACTLY

 

[bakaduin]

33% Utilitarian
25% Relational
17% Respect for Nature
17% Animal Rights
8% Contractarian

 

[twosoakers]

Contractarian

0%

0% Utilitarian

25%

25% Relational

8%

8% Animal Rights

50%

50% Respect for Nature

17%

17%

 

[MelliSpirit]

Contractarian 0%
Utilitarian 67%
Relational 8%
Animal Rights 17%
Respect for Nature 8%