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Justice, Negative GHIs, and the Consumption of Farmed Animal Products

Lookup NU author(s): Mx Jan Deckers

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Abstract

In previous work I argued that all human beings should possess the right to adequate health protection, and that we have good reasons to believe that not all human beings are or will be able to enjoy this right. I introduced the ‘Global Health Impact’ or ‘GHI’ concept as a unit of measurement to evaluate the effects of human actions on the health of human and nonhuman organisms, and argued that the negative GHIs produced by our current generation jeopardise the right to adequate health protection of future generations unjustifiably. In this article, this incomplete theory of human justice is applied to the negative GHIs associated with the consumption of farmed animal products. Since the negative GHIs of such products generally exceed those associated with other diets, I argue that those who exceed their fair share of negative GHIs might curtail their consumption, and that the costs of reducing negative GHIs in this domain might be lower than the costs associated with other things that could be done to reduce negative GHIs.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Deckers J

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Journal of Global Ethics

Year: 2011

Volume: 7

Issue: 2

Pages: 205-216

Print publication date: 14/09/2011

Date deposited: 21/10/2011

ISSN (print): 1744-9626

ISSN (electronic): 1744-9634

Publisher: Routledge

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17449626.2011.591815

DOI: 10.1080/17449626.2011.591815

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