Is it morally permissible for human beings to kill and eat animals?When is it morally permissible for human beings to kill and eat animals? animals ? This is a question to which the answers have been debated from the beginnings of Stoic philosophy until today with the “rights view”. Well-known philosophers Tom Regan and Epictetus use two different moral theories to defend what is morally permissible. Tom Regan uses the moral theory of the “rights view” to overcome a situation in which our moral obligations must be overridden, making it morally permissible to kill and sometimes eat animals. The Stoic philosophy of Epictetus holds that Providence gives non-human animals to rational human animals (to do as they please), making it morally permissible for human beings to kill and eat animals in accordance with nature. The rights view: According to the "rights view" moral theory, since human beings are capable of moral obligations, they have a prima facie moral obligation not to kill animals and since animals are incapable to understand moral obligation, animals have a prima facie moral right to live (Lehman). Prima facie is a term used when an opinion is considered correct until proven otherwise. The “rights view” does not, however, say that humans will never be able to kill animals. In fact, under certain conditions, prima facie moral obligations can be overridden, making it morally permissible for human beings to kill animals. In a situation known as a “lifeboat situation,” a choice must be made whether to override an animal’s rights. Tom Regan uses the lifeboat situation to argue for the condition to override the rights of any animal. An example of the lifeboat situation that Regan defends is a ship at sea that capsizes and four humans and a dog...... middle of paper ...... status of animals.4. Regan, Tom. Defend animal rights. Urbana: University of Illinois, 2001. Print.a. Tom uses the “rights view” to defend animal rights. He defends the ethical theories of direct and indirect duties, perfectionism, despotism, contractarianism, Kantianism (Thomas Aquinas) and utilitarianism. Visak, Tatjana. Killing happy animals: explorations of utilitarian ethics. Np: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Print.a. Tatjana uses two versions of utilitarianism as a moral theory to explore the moral issues of animal husbandry. One version can morally justify that the systematic killing of animals is wrong and the other version can morally justify the need for stronger animal protection..