Mary Anne Warren

Her essays have sometimes been required readings in academic courses dealing with the abortion debate and they are frequently cited in major publications like Peter Singer's The Moral of the Story: An Anthology of Ethics Through Literature[2] and Bernard Gert's Bioethics: A Systematic Approach.

In doing so, they consume and contaminate food, and sometimes spread lethal diseases, such as bubonic plague—the “Black Death” of the Middle Ages, which is carried by fleas that live on rats.

[8]Warren argued that as some animals are more sentient and have a greater sense of awareness than others the thesis that all subjects-of-a-life have equal moral status should be rejected.

"[5] She stated that Regan's subject-of-a-life criteria provides no clear moral guidance of how to deal with most animals.

[5] Warren dismissed the notion of equal rights as problematic and defended a "sliding scale of moral status".

[5] In 2007, philosopher Aaron Simmons wrote a detailed rebuttal to Warren's weak animal rights position.