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How to Help when It Hurts: The Problem of Assisting Victims of Injustice
Author(s) -
Abbate Cheryl
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of social philosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.353
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1467-9833
pISSN - 0047-2786
DOI - 10.1111/josp.12146
Subject(s) - injustice , social injustice , citation , sociology , psychology , computer science , library science , social psychology , law , political science , politics
In The Case for Animal Rights, Regan (1983) argues that all nonhuman animals who are subjects-of-a-life have inherent worth and are thus entitled to the right to respectful treatment. Having the right to respectful treatment, according to Regan, entails that one should “never be treated merely as a means to securing the best aggregate consequences” (Regan 1983, 249). Although Regan maintains that the right to respectful treatment, in its most basic form, confers on moral agents a prima facie negative duty not to harm subjects-of-a-life in order to maximize social utility, he also acknowledges that there are certain conditions under which the right to respectful treatment imposes positive duties on moral agents, such as the duty to assist those who are the “victims of injustice at the hands of others” (Regan 1983, 249).