15 Facts About James Rachels

James Webster Rachels was an American philosopher who specialized in ethics and animal rights.

James Rachels taught at the University of Richmond, New York University, the University of Miami, Duke University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he spent the last twenty-six years of his career.

James Rachels married Carol Williams in 1962, and they had two sons, David and Stuart.

James Rachels taught chess to his 9-year-old son, Stuart, who became the youngest chess master in American history at age 11.

James Rachels argued for moral vegetarianism and animal rights, affirmative action, euthanasia, and the idea that parents should give as much fundamental moral consideration to another's children as they do to their own.

Later in his career, James Rachels realized that a lifetime of analysing specific moral issues had led him to adopt the general ethic of utilitarianism, according to which actions are assessed by their effects on both human and nonhuman happiness.

James Rachels died from cancer on 5 September 2003, in Birmingham, Alabama.

In 1975, James Rachels wrote "Active and Passive Euthanasia", which originally appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, and argued that the distinction so important in the law between killing and letting die has no rational basis.

James Rachels argued that, if we allow passive euthanasia, we should allow active euthanasia, because it is more humane, and because there is no significant moral difference between killing and allowing to die.

James Rachels wrote only a few works that were not directly focused on ethics.

James Rachels's best known paper on the subject was The Basic Argument for Vegetarianism in 2004.

James Rachels proposed what he called the basic argument for vegetarianism which he believed is supported by a simple principle that every decent person accepts: it is wrong to cause pain unless there is a good enough reason.

James Rachels argued that the primary reason why cruelty to animals is wrong is because tortured animals suffer, just as tortured humans suffer.

James Rachels held the view that inflicting pain on animals can sometimes be justified but we must have a sufficiently good reason for doing so.

James Rachels stated that "from a practical standpoint, it makes sense to focus first on the things that cause the most misery".