  Defenders of research on non-human animals typically object that arguments against such research are overbroad. Where a defender of animal research would locate the main problem with the Borderline-Personhood Argument depends on whether moral status is a binary property or whether it admits of degrees. If moral status is a binary property, then, given that even merely sentient animals have some moral status, it follows that even merely sentient animals have full moral status. The Borderline-Personhood Argument then implies that any research on any sentient animal is subject to conditions (a)–(c). Given that all vertebrates are sentient, this would prohibit the use of any vertebrates, even guppies, in any non-therapeutic research that was more than minimal risk, irrespective of how large the benefit for other individuals might be. Although some animal rights theorists would accept this conclusion, defenders of animal research will take it as a reductio of the Borderline-Person Argument, maintaining that if full moral status really is as ubiquitous as that, then DeGrazia’s claim about the research protections owed individuals with full or near-full moral status is overly strict.