Tuck Nancy
Albany Medical College, Alden March Bioethics Institute, 43 New Scotland Avenue, Albany, NY 12208, USA.
Animals (Basel). 2020 Apr 6;10(4):629. doi: 10.3390/ani10040629.
When considering that artistic and literary artifacts reflect the cultural views and mores of a particular time period, there is a significant misalignment between stories depicting increased moral status of pigs (e.g., vis-à-vis human-porcine relationships) and ongoing practices of pig consumption, commodification, and medical experimentation. In fact, there has been increased industrial farm meat production and biotechnological experimentation. Xenotransplantation trials, for example, are being heralded "the answer" to organ shortages needed for human transplantation, while significant ethical concerns persist. In this paper, I posit that literary reflections add a valuable dimension to animal ethics deliberations, providing a meta-narrative against which to assess normative practices. Beginning with synopses of three books: E.B. White's (1952), Robert Newton Peck's (1972), and Paul Griffin's (2017), I illustrate a shifting moral status view of human-pig relationships. Next, I discuss personhood attributions through biological, philosophical, and legal frameworks; review benefits and risks of xenotransplantation; reflect on the moral status of non-human animals; and offer concluding thoughts.
鉴于艺术和文学作品反映了特定时期的文化观念和习俗，在描绘猪的道德地位提高的故事（例如，关于人与猪的关系）与持续存在的猪的消费、商品化和医学实验做法之间存在明显的脱节。事实上，工业化农场肉类生产和生物技术实验一直在增加。例如，异种移植试验被誉为解决人类移植所需器官短缺问题的“答案”，但重大的伦理问题依然存在。在本文中，我认为文学反思为动物伦理思考增添了一个有价值的维度，提供了一个用以评估规范性做法的元叙事。从三本书的概要开始：E.B.怀特的《夏洛的网》（1952年）、罗伯特·牛顿·佩克的《小猪威尔伯》（1972年）和保罗·格里芬的《小猪梅布尔》（2017年），我阐述了对人与猪关系的道德地位观点的转变。接下来，我通过生物学、哲学和法律框架讨论人格归属；审视异种移植的益处和风险；思考非人类动物的道德地位；并给出结论性思考。
