Can bioethics bray? Non-human animals, biosemiotics, and a road to shared decision-making
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The prospect of shared decision-making with animals is an elusive one. Its elusiveness comes largely from how difficult it is to assess the linguistic abilities of animals, whether that be their ability to 'speak' or their ability to maintain propositional values. In this paper, I suggest a path to shared decision-making with animals that attempts to avoid these deadlocks by using resources from biosemiotics and Umwelt theory. I begin with an examination of the general structure of decision-making, demonstrating its future-orientation, comparison of imagined futures, and assessment of what things matter to participants in decision-making. Animals' capability of having things matter to them, due to their residence in Umwelten, offers a means to shared decision-making with animals via a process I call 'imaginative adjuncting.'
Source: Metamedicine
Author: Martin J. Fitzgerald
Language: English
Topic: Animal Law and Welfare
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,090
OpenAlex ID: W4407975497