Is It Moral to Euthanize Animals

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Is It Moral to Euthanize Animals ?

• Hsuan-Ju Wang
• Graduate Institute of Philosophy
• National Central University, Chungli, ROC

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1.Introduction 1)the reasons why Taiwan has so
many stray dogs

• People do not realize that dogs need a lot of
  care especially when they grown up.
• Owners neglect their responsibility to take care
  of their pets and that they should treat their
  dogs like family members.
• Owners just dump their dogs when they are through
  with them.
• Taiwan government has no proper control of
  breeders .

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2)Government Policy on the solution of stray dogs

• The Taiwan government has no other policy than
  giving euthanasia to stray dogs.
• There are shortage of public animal shelter and
  fall far behind the demand of animal welfare.

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3)the main purpose of this paper

• First, what kind of suffering of stray dogs in
  Taiwan .
• Second, how university students of animal welfare
  groups offer help to protect and promote
  humanistic treatment of these dogs.
• Third, what decision students made when these dog
  are crippled and how to handle the dilemmas of
  euthanasia and helping of stray dogs .
• Finally, I will describe one case and showing how
  to solve this dilemma by the principles of
  Confucianism bioethics.

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2.The suffering of stray dogs in Taiwan
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(A) hungry and disease

• Stray dogs could hardly find enough food in
  cities and often with all sorts of infectious
  diseases .

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(B) harm and torture

• Some are badly and cruelly treated by their
  owners, sometimes with whipping, hacking of
  limbs, etc.

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(C) Suffering in inhuman breeding factories in
Taiwan

• Taiwan government does not regulate the dog
  breeders, they breed the dogs at market demands.

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(D) Suffering during catching and death in public
animal shelter

• Taiwan government servants often badly hurt the
  stray dogs when catching them .

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3.The effort and dilemmas of university student
of animal welfare groups in Taiwan
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(A) Their efforts

• In general, university students take care of
  stray dogs dumped on campus.

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(B) Difficulties

• For some dogs, the only possible outlet is
  euthanasia and it is a dilemma for university
  students.

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4.moral dilemmas of Taiwans student volunteers

• euthanasia of stray dogs

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• Because the euthanasia policy of the public
  animal shelter of Taiwan doesn't accord with
  animal welfare .
• The dilemma of student volunteering group faces
  is to euthanize heavily crippled or sick stray
  dogs.

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(1) Principles of Confucianism bioethics

• For Confucianism, the central concept is
  benevolence (ren) and our moral rights and
  obligations are determined according to this
  concept.
• Mencius points out that everyone has certain
  moral consciousness, which he called the
  unbearable mind towards the suffering of others.

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• Professor Lee Shui Chuen pointed out that our
  unbearable mind is a kind of moral feeling, and
  it is what makes human being a moral agent .
• The unbearable mind is the categorical command of
  our morality. It extends into ren, yi,li and chi,
  which have similar structure and comparable with
  the four principles of respect of autonomy,
  non-maleficence, benevolence and justice.

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• According to Prof. Lees re-construction,
  Confucian bioethics could derive the four
  principles and moral rules such as the
  principle of informed consent, paternalism,
  privacy, etc.

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(2)The analysis of case
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Case1 pipis story
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• its pelvis was cracked seriously by traffic
  accident and caused the difficulty of defecating.
  
• Through the assessment of the veterinarian, if we
  do surgical operation to PiPi ,it may hurt the
  neural system of PiPi. But if we dont,PiPi bears
  the pains of the difficulty of defecating.
• so, what can we do for PIPi ?

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Case2 vivians story
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• It was infected by distemper virus. Although it
  later recovered to healthy condition, Vivian
  became paralyzed and had pressure sore.
• What the worst problem is Vivian could not bear
  the pressure of its body.
• What is the best decision we should make? to
  live? or die?

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(3) the application and judgment of moral
dilemmas of the principles of Confucianism
bioethics
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• First, we will analyze the relationship between
  the student volunteers and stray dogs.
• Second, the euthanasia posts problems which worth
  giving some analysis.
• finally, we will apply the principle of
  ching-chuan to solve problems whether to
  euthanize the two stray dogs or not.

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First, the relationship between student
volunteers and stray dogs

• What causes the dilemma for the student
  volunteers is their unbearable mind or hearts
  upon the sufferings of the dogs.
• Student volunteers also take two principles as
  the guide for their actions.
• One is the principle of beneficence which means
  that we need to take care of stray dogs and
  lessen their pains.

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• The other is the principle of non-maleficence
  that no unnecessary injury to these heavily
  crippled animals.
• Euthanasia could may result in too arbitrary a
  decision for euthanasia to stray dogs in general.
  
• Finally, that we should decide for the best
  interest of stray dogs because dogs could not
  speak.

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then, for Confucianism what judgment we should
do?

• the principle of ching-chuan of Confucianism
• Confucianist usually applies the principle of
  ching-chuan to solve moral dilemmas.
• the point of the principle of ching-chuan is to
  protect the persons best interest involved. The
  foundation of the principle is the unbearable
  mind of sufferings of others.

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What are steps of the principle of ching-chuan?

• Professor Lee Shui Chuen pointed out there are
  three steps in solving a moral dilemma
• 1) Try to understand what conflictions are
  involved .
• 2) Display considerations and analysis in details
  concretely in every possible solution.
• 3) Return to the moral demands of our unbearable
  mind for the critical evaluation for what to do.
• Sometimes, consider the advice of to the moral
  and life experience of the wise may offer helps
  for solutions of difficult dilemmas.

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Next , the two cases as analyzed by means of
principle of ching-chuan

• The two principles in contradiction are the
  principle of non-maleficence and the principle of
  beneficence.
• The former shows that people taking the life of
  stray dogs, that is killing, is morally wrong.
• The principle of beneficence implies that moral
  agents must promote the happiness of dogs, and
  offer them active therapy to recovery.
• So what should we decide ?

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• In fact, if we insist to offer active medical
  treatments to these dogs, they will suffer a lot
  of pain physically and psychologically.
• Therefore, sometimes it does not accord with
  animal welfare when we try to maintain the life
  of these dogs, even if the principle of
  beneficence requests us not to do that.

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• Eventually, we arrive somehow that?the minimum
  harm?to these dogs is the command of the
  principle of ching-chuan, that is we have to let
  them passed painless in cases of great pain.

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• In order to avoiding the slope argument, some of
  the students insist not to give up any dog at
  least instantly
• The key point of euthanizing animals is the
  suffering of these dogs.
• In the Confucian of point of view, euthanasia
  could be moral in such cases.

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5.conclusion

• These students always face the challenge of
  euthanasia to stray dogs, the principles of
  Confucianism bioethics provide a guide for them
  to face such dilemmas.
• For student volunteers ,they never give up any
  stray dog that they can save and they believe
  that someday there will be no stray dogs anymore
  in Taiwan.

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• Thanks for your listening.