The Recognition of Legal Personality for Non-Human Beings and Holistic Organic Entities as a Consequence of the Principle of Harmony with Nature
摘要
This chapter discusses the recognition of legal personality for non-human living beings and holistic organic entities as a logical consequence of the principle of harmony with nature in its integrative function. It proposes the ethical and legal concept of biological dignity and suggests the term “biodignity” to name the dignity that is common to all living beings and holistic organic entities. In this context, it is explained that this dignity arises from the vital impulse present in all living beings, driving them toward flourishing—a reality of life called conatus by Spinoza and homeostasis by Antônio Damásio. A structuring of the concept of biodignity is presented, based on Henri Bergson’s Theory of Creative Evolution, which opposes Aristotle and Arthur Lovejoy’s Theory of the Scale of Being. From the concept of biological legal personality, the recognition of three different biological persons, holders of rights intrinsic to their vital impulse for flourishing, is finally unfolded: (i) the plant biological person; (ii) the animal biological person; and (iii) the systemic biological person. To establish the extent of biological personality, the work relies on the research of Stefano Mancuso and František Baluška; Anthony Trewavas; Tom L. Beauchamp and David DeGrazia; Marc Bekoff; Temple Grandin; and Sven Erik Jørgensen.