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Alien Persons

Christine Nicol explores the meaty problem of eating aliens. What if they are like people?

Jake the Spaceman (aka comedian Jake Yapp) has crash-landed on a remote planet and doesn't have much food to keep him going until he is rescued. Fortunately, the planet is teeming with alien life forms that are edible, but which ones should he eat? He wants to cause the minimum amount of pain and distress to the creatures, so what does he need to know about the nature of the beings on the planet? Can they feel pain? If so, how can he minimise suffering? Will eating an alien cause distress to others? Is the alien so aware and sensitive to its environment that Jake needs to consider whether it is a non-human person?
Christine will interview animal welfare scientists, philosophers and wildlife biologists to get under the skin of animal sentience and the potential consequences of accepting that animals are conscious, aware creatures.
These big questions generate surprising and challenging insights into our attitudes to other life. When you know absolutely nothing about the alien in front of you, what do you need to know before eating it?

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28 minutes

Last on

Wed 30 Dec 2015 21:00
ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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Desiree Brucks

Desiree Brucks
DΓ©sirΓ©e BrucksΒ a PhD student at the Messerli Research Institute carrying out researchΒ intoΒ the underlying emotional and cognitive mechanisms of inequity aversion in dogs.

She has a background in Behavioral Biology and has worked with different animal species, ranging from mouse lemurs to dogs.

Professor Nickie Charles

Professor Nickie Charles
Nickie Charles is Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies in the Sociology Department at the University of Warwick where she teaches courses on Human-Animal relations. She has worked with theΒ Β to explore human-animal relations and has a particular interest in how it is that animals come to be regarded as family members.

She is also beginning to explore the effects of introducing PAT dogs into universities so that students are able to interact with them. Among her most recent books areΒ Μύ²Ή²Τ»εΜύΜύ²Ή²Τ»εΜύ, which she co-edited with Bob Carter.

She has set up an inter-disciplinary research network at the University of Warwick,Β .

Professor Nicola Clayton

Professor Nicola Clayton
Nicola Clayton is Professor of Comparative Cognition in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of Clare College and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Her expertise lies in the contemporary study of comparative cognition, integrating a knowledge of both biology and psychology to introduce new ways of thinking about the evolution and development of intelligence in non-verbal animals and pre-verbal children.

She is also the first . She collaborates with Mark Baldwin, the Artistic Director, on new choreographic works inspired by science.

Professor Carolyn Muessig

Professor Carolyn Muessig
Carolyn Muessig isΒ Professor of Medieval Religion at the University of Bristol andΒ has written extensively on the history of medieval preaching as well as Jacques de Vitry, Francis of Assisi, Catherine of Siena and female educators in the Middle Ages.

Since 2002, she has been Co-Director of the Centre for Christianity and Culture. She is a member of the at the University of Bristol.

Professor Peter Singer

Professor Peter Singer
Peter Singer is often described as the world’s most influential living philosopher. In 2005, Time magazine named himΒ , and in 2013 he was third in theΒ .

He is known especially for his work on the ethics of our treatment of animals, for his controversial critique of the sanctity of life ethics in bioethics, and for his writing on the obligations of the affluent to aid those living in extreme poverty.Β He first became well-known internationally after the publication ofΒ . In 2011, Time included Animal Liberation on its β€œAll-TIME” list of the 100 best non-fiction books published in English since the magazine began, in 1923.

Picture:Β Denise Applewhite - Princeton University

Professor Roger Scruton

Professor Roger Scruton
Β is a philosopher, public commentator and author of over 40 books. He has specialised in aesthetics with particular attention to music and architecture.

He engages in contemporary political and cultural debates from the standpoint of a conservative thinker and is well known as a powerful polemicist. He is a fellow of theΒ Β and a fellow of theΒ .

Steven Wise

Steven Wise
Steven Wise is President of the . He has practiced animal protection law for 30 years throughout the United States and is admitted to the Massachusetts Bar.

The Nonhuman Rights Project is working to achieve legal rights for members of species other than humans. ItsΒ mission is to change the legal status of appropriate nonhuman animals from mere β€œthings,” which lack the capacity to possess any legal right, to β€œpersons,” who possess such fundamental rights as bodily integrity and bodily liberty.Β It filed its first cases in 2013 on behalf of captive chimpanzees.

Dr James Yeates

Dr James Yeates
James isΒ Β Chief Veterinary Officer. He undertook a PhD at Bristol University in animal welfare and ethics and was previously chair of theΒ .

Broadcast

  • Wed 30 Dec 2015 21:00
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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