written by : H Wan

We generally regard an animal as a non-human being which lacks self-consciousness and rationality in mind". I often hear people say that killing an animal lacking self-consciousness is not immoral, for the animal cannot feel any pain or suffering of death -- Is self-consciousness really a critical factor as such? Maybe I can pretend myself to accept fully that it is. But how can we human beings, bearing in mind we are not the animal itself, know for sure that the animal does lack self-consciousness? Even if the animal itself does not know its lack of self-consciousness due to its lack of self-consciousness, does it follow that we can know even better than the animal itself that it does lack self-consciousness because we human beings possess self-consciousness and rationality in (our own, not the animal's) mind?

(Written by : H Wan )