... as far as we know - have neither, and this also brings human vegetables in to the problem, as many are totally unaware of what is going on around them. But for this study we will take existing to mean simply inhabiting the earth in the most basic way, as others do in order to stay alive; namely eating and drinking, breathing and sleeping. On the subject of the deceased, Joel Feinberg1 says a dead man is a "mere corpse, a piece of decaying organic matter", and it follows that they simply cannot have any interests, and consequently no rights (It is important to remember here that a being is classed as having rights only if it has interests that need rights to protect them. If one has no interests, then it follows that it needs no rights, as there are no interests to be protected). So why do we ...

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