To the Editor: Professor Cohen's entire argument (Oct. 2 issue)* seems to be based on three premises: that humans are moral agents, that no nonhuman animals are moral agents, and that only moral agents have any rights. Nothing even vaguely resembling objective scientific evidence was offered to support any of these premises. To support the first premise he cited seven references, all of which were philosophical or religious in nature, with not one scientific paper among them. Such references are of interest as opinions, but they carry no weight as scientific evidence. What does the scientific evidence show? The evidence… © 1987, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.
