Animals in Moral Limbo: How Literary Pigs May Help Lab-Generated Ones

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Unlike dogs and horses, who maintain “companion animal” moral status and protections from societal harms, pigs are increasingly being used in medical experimentation for human use, in spite of scientific validation of advanced porcine cognitive and social-emotional abilities (on a par with, if not greater than, other protected mammals). While animal ethicists apply philosophical paradigms in risk-benefit deliberations, this article challenges assumptions about societal/cultural norms of pig commodification and experimentation through application of a literary lens—specifically, how children’s coming-of-age stories have demonstrated increased pig moral status vis-à-vis human–nonhuman animal relationships and understandings. Human society must revisit pronouncements of “having no other choice” when it comes to increased promotion and continued acceptance, of medical experimentation, and industrial commodification of pigs. Xenotransplantation trials are especially morally fraught due to the purposeful generation of human–nonhuman chimeras in efforts to produce human organs for transplantation. ABSTRACT: When considering that artistic and literary artifacts reflect the cultural views and mores of a particular time period, there is a significant misalignment between stories depicting increased moral status of pigs (e.g., vis-à-vis human-porcine relationships) and ongoing practices of pig consumption, commodification, and medical experimentation. In fact, there has been increased industrial farm meat production and biotechnological experimentation. Xenotransplantation trials, for example, are being heralded “the answer” to organ shortages needed for human transplantation, while significant ethical concerns persist. In this paper, I posit that literary reflections add a valuable dimension to animal ethics deliberations, providing a meta-narrative against which to assess normative practices. Beginning with synopses of three books: E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web (1952), Robert Newton Peck’s A Day No Pigs Would Die (1972), and Paul Griffin’s Saving Marty (2017), I illustrate a shifting moral status view of human–pig relationships. Next, I discuss personhood attributions through biological, philosophical, and legal frameworks; review benefits and risks of xenotransplantation; reflect on the moral status of non-human animals; and offer concluding thoughts.