Citation

Author Website

https://www.qmul.ac.uk/law/people/academic-staff/items/adenitire.html

Thread

Jonathan Birch, Précis of The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI

Abstract

This commentary assesses the pragmatic framework proposed in Jonathan Birch’s The Edge of Sentience (2024). Celebrating the book's exceptional clarity, scientific rigor, and profound real-world impact on UK legislation, I nevertheless have some questions about the method by which Birch arrives at his policy recommendations for animal protection. In seeking an overlapping consensus between deeply divergent ethical and credal viewpoints, the framework risks defaulting to a minimalist, lowest-common-denominator standard of protection for animals. Birch also risks drawing the standard even lower by including serious academic positions in animal ethics that deny moral status for animals altogether. A rights-based approach offers a standard for animal protection that is more robust, though less likely to be adopted.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Author Biography

John Adenitire is Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London. He is co-author of Animals and the Constitution (OUP 2025) and co-editor of Fundamental Rights for Non-Humans (Hart 2026). He co-directs the Forum on Decentering the Human at QMUL. Website

DOI

10.51291/2377-7478.1935