Moving Beyond Anthropocentrism? Human Rights and the Charge of Speciesism

In the face of rapidly accelerating ecological devastations, it is obvious that we have to expand the scope of ethical and political responsibility beyond anthropocentric interests. This insight, however, should not lead us to give up human rights as a distinct normative status position. Even critics of anthropocentric rights (e.g. Peter Singer, Sue Donaldson, or David Boyd) usually assume some sort of anthropocentrism by directing their normative appeals to human beings. This implicit anthropocentrism of responsibility provides the entry point for justifying a distinct category of human rights based on respect for the inalienable dignity of all human beings. The bonds of solidarity facilitated by human rights fully include people living in particularly vulnerable situations, e.g. in an advanced stadium of dementia.