Abstract
Moral judgment in relation to animal ethics issues has rarely been investigated. Among the research that has been conducted, studies of veterinary students have shown greater use of reasoning based on universal principles for animal than human ethics issues. This study aimed to identify if this was unique to students of veterinary and other animal-related professions. The moral reasoning of first year students of veterinary medicine, veterinary technology, and production animal science was compared with that of students in non-animal related disciplines of human medicine and arts. All students (n = 531) completed a moral reasoning test, the VetDIT, with animal and human scenarios. When compared with reasoning on human ethics issues, the combined group of students evaluating animal ethics issues showed higher levels of Universal Principles reasoning, lower levels of Personal Interest reasoning and similar levels of Maintaining Norms reasoning. Arts students showed more personal interest reasoning than students in most animal-related programs on both animal and human ethics issues, and less norms-based reasoning on animal ethics issues. Medical students showed more norms-based reasoning on animal ethics issues than all of the animal-related groups. There were no differences in principled reasoning on animal ethics issues between program groups. This has implications for animal-related professions and education programs showing that students’ preference for principled reasoning on animal ethics issues is not unique to animal-related disciplines, and highlighting the need to develop student (and professional) capacity to apply principled reasoning to address ethics issues in animal industries to reduce the risk of moral distress.
Highlights
Moral judgment has been identified as a cognitive development process through three levels of reasoning—preconventional, conventional and post-conventional [1]
This study showed that while veterinary students in the first year of their university program had similar reasoning levels to US Freshmen on human ethics issues, they had lower Personal Interest (PI) and higher Universal Principles (UP) reasoning scores on animal than on human ethics issues
As this study suggests that the majority of tertiary students from both animal and non-animal disciplines, in Australia at least, do prioritise and apply universal principles to animal ethics issues, even more than to human ethics issues, the challenge for educators is to enable these high levels of moral judgment to be acknowledged and applied to address animal ethics issues, and embed them in professional and legal practice
Summary
Moral judgment has been identified as a cognitive development process through three levels of reasoning—preconventional (based on avoidance of punishment and satisfaction of personalPLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0149308 March 2, 2016Moral Judgment on Animal and Human Ethics Issues interests), conventional (based on a desire to maintain society’s laws and institutional rules) and post-conventional (based on universal ethical principles of justice and impartiality for the welfare of all individuals) [1]. Moral judgment has been identified as a cognitive development process through three levels of reasoning—preconventional To investigate moral judgment development, Kohlberg used a Moral Judgment Interview in which respondents discussed their concerns in relation to specific human ethics issues. Other tests have been developed to simplify the process of assessing levels of moral judgment e.g. Gibb’s Sociomoral Reflection Measure [3] and Rest’s Defining Issues Test (DIT), the latter being used extensively in higher education and professional contexts [4]. While Kohlberg’s highest stage of moral development was focussed on justice, Rest’s is a broader definition which encompasses all ethical theories for organising cooperation in society that are based on:
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