³⁵

The equal rights can only be enjoyed by those who have full reason or have a certain possibility to have full reason in the future. The possibility, as the standard of a person, is lower than that of infants and higher than embryo in some countries while lower in other countries. Animals will never enjoy the same rights as human, as long as meat is necessary food of people. Most chimera cannot enjoy the equal rights, either, except some of them have big possibilities to have reason, like a mouse with a head of human.

The second reason to criticize Peter Singer is that benefits of children connect closely with that of their parents, because breeding is the essence of creature. Parents always regard the harm to their children or infants as that to themselves. The third and the most important reason is that all of people, including infants and deformed men, ought to share equal rights, after the foundation of the principle of equality with the social progress. How did the principle of equality found, then?

Ⅶ. The Principle of Equality

There are two reasons for society to accept the idea of equality as the criterion of justice. Firstly, equality and humanitarianism are results of struggle and compromise, a scheme with the least loss to realize equilibrium of social game. So it is supported the most. Americans cost two hundred years to learn how to treat the black equally, though Immanuel Kant had indicated, “Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”³⁶ Han ethnic group costs four thousand years to learn how to treat Chinese minorities equally.

Secondly, the social organizations with the culture of equality have higher efficiency. Social organizations include company, party, country, class, art and athletic organization, etc. The power of organization is larger than person. Therefore, organizations are governors in society, and the competitions are almost carried on among organizations.

The laws within organizations were the law of jungle originally. There are different kinds of guide of organization culture: rule by law or by individual, democracy or autarchy. Organizations with different culture have different efficiency, and therefore different competitive power. During the history, organizations ruled by individual and autarchy showed more and more disadvantages, and even bring catastrophe like holocaust. As a result, more and more people got faith on that higher efficiency comes from law and democracy, and with the progress of them equality is realized inevitably. So it is concluded that competition and resistance bring the progress of organization culture, which brings equality.

Equality is to distribute the same right, obligation and interest to each person, no matter whether he is full rational. There are three cases when the right of a person, as a subject, compares with the right of others: superior, equal or short. When a man have privilege, others have to be short, which certainly cannot be accepted according to the principle of utility. Therefore, equality is the largest right which people can hold for long, and equality becomes the goal of each