Extending the rights of personhood, voice, and life to sensate others: A homology of right to life and animal rights rhetoric

This homological analysis argues that the right to life and animal rights movements share a number of rhetorical commonalities, despite their overtly ideological differences. Specifically, the movements employ the ideograph of “rights” that takes on the meaning of being, and unites the two movements through the common frameworks of personhood, voice, and sanctity of life. In turn, this connection demonstrates that opposing groups can mesh individual means into a joint rhetoric calling for the rights of the marginalized, sensate other. The essay concludes by exploring the ways in which such disparate movements might form a union to oppose a collective, anthropocentric establishment.

Key concepts:

• right to life
• animal rights
• homology
• rights
• other‐directed
• social movement