Oderberg on Animal Rights

In recent years, several prominent philosophers, including David Oderberg, have denied that animals have rights. Unfortunately for Oderberg, his argument for this conclusion is defective. He argues that moral agency is a necessary condition for rights possession. Since no animals are moral agents, no animals possess rights. The problem with this argument is that there are two main theories of rights, not just one. The most Oderberg has shown is that moral agency is a necessary condition for possession of autonomy-rights. He has not shown that moral agency is a necessary condition for possession of welfare-rights. Since proponents of animal rights have welfare-rights rather than autonomy-rights in mind, Oderberg has not so much as engaged them, much less refuted them. I conclude by commenting on several mistakes made by Oderberg.

Keywords: Rights, Animal Rights, Welfare Rights, Autonomy Rights, Utilitarianism, Moral Agency.