Tom Regan: The Case For Animal Rights Tom Regan establishes the
rights of animals in his monumental philosophical work, The Case
For Animal Rights. As individuals with complex mental lives,
Regan explains why animals are due just treatment. Central to
his philosophy is his subject-of-a-life criterion. Any being
with a complex mental life, including perception, desire,
belief, memory, intention, and a sense of the future--among
other attributes, and which Regan spends much time exploring--is
a subject of a life. Considerable evidence leads to an
understanding that most animals indeed are subjects of a life,
as opposed to biological beings without such subjective worlds.
Regan uses this criterion to ground his case for the basic
rights of animals. Because each subject of a life is an
individual who cares about his or her life, that life has
inherent value. This inherent value is equal among all subjects
of a life, since one either is a subject of a life or is not.
Inherent value does not come in degrees, and it