In Defense of Dolphins. The New Moral Frontier
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Author(s): T. I. White
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing
ISBN: 9781405157797
Format: softback
229pp
Price: £12.99
Review Date: 05 September 2007
Review: This book is the response to questions that have puzzled the author for nearly 20 years. What kind of beings are dolphins? What does the answer to this question say about the ethical character of human–dolphin interaction? Thomas White has made a survey of major scientific research on dolphin intelligence and social behaviour and concludes that they possess sophisticated intellectual and emotional abilities. He argues that dolphins are nonhuman ‘persons’, and as such are entitled to moral standing as individuals – the death, injury and captivity of dolphins connected with a variety of human practices is therefore indefensible. White’s aim is to bring an end to certain ways in which humans treat dolphins.