Difficulties with the Strong Animal Rights Position

For biographical information on Warren, see her reading in Chapter 2. Warren explains and then attacks Regan's strong animal rights position, the view that nonhuman animals have the same basic moral rights as humans. She makes two criticisms of Regan's position: It rests on an obscure concept of inherent value, and it fails to draw a sharp line between living things which have inherent value and moral rights and other living things which don't have such value or rights. Warren concludes with a defense of the weak animal rights position-that animal rights are weaker than human rights because humans are rational and animals are not.