If a Being is Sentient, They are Subjectively Aware
A Sentience Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM Gary Francione
Facebook posting, January 17, 2022

ANY sentient being has an interest in continuing to live simply by virtue of being sentient.

Gary Francione

I have noticed a number of animal people making comments on Facebook about fish being "less sentient" than other animals.

That is the exact WRONG way to think about sentience. If a being is sentient, or subjectively aware, that is ALL we need to know. We should never ask whether, for example, a fish is more or less sentient than a chicken or cow or whether a chicken is more or less sentient than a cow or a pig.

If a being is sentient, that being is subjectively aware. That being has interests, and can suffer. That being has an interest in continuing to live. In these regards, all sentient beings are the same. We should not buy into the nonsense that some beings are less sentient than others so that it morally acceptable, or less morally wrong, to kill them. Sentience is a yes/no matter; not a matter of degree. If a being is sentient, then that being is equal to every other sentient being in that all sentient beings have the moral right not to be used exclusively as a resource.

Closely related to the idea of "degrees" of sentience is the ideas of "degrees" of cognitive sophistication. For example, Peter Singer claims that only animals who are rational and self-aware in a humanlike way have an interest in continuing to live. I reject that view.

ANY sentient being has an interest in continuing to live simply by virtue of being sentient. To say that a being can be sentient but not have an interest in continuing to live is to ignore what it means to be sentient. 


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