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("The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. The French have already discovered that the blackness of the skin is no reason why a human being should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor. It may one day come to be recognized that the number of legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate. the question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?" - An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. A new edition, corrected by the author. London 1828. Chapter 17: Of the Limits of the Penal Branch of Jurisprudence. IV. Fußnote "Interest of the inferior animals improperly neglected in legislation". p. 235, 236 (de) |
