Rights, Justice, and Duties to Provde Assistance: A Critique of Regan's Theory of Rights

Abstract

In his monograph, The Case for Animal Rights (University of California Press; 1983), Tom Regan seeks to develop an alternative moral theory to utilitarianism, and to apply it to the question of animal rights, including animal experimentation. Here Jamieson presents an overview of Regan's theory and critically examines areas in which he, Jamieson, believes it to be most problematic. He argues that Regan's theory encounters difficulties in its account of our duties to render assistance and its principles for overriding rights. Jamieson concludes that Regan has failed to develop a "compelling and dramatic alternative to utilitarian theories" and that most plausible revisions of his theory lead back in the direction of utilitarianism.

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