Ethics of uncertain sentience

Summary

The ethics of uncertain sentience is an area of applied ethics concerned with decision-making when it is unclear whether a being is sentient, meaning capable of subjective experience, feeling, or perception. The issue appears in animal ethics, especially for invertebrates such as crustaceans, cephalopods, and insects, and for fish, where the extent of their capacity to experience pain is disputed. It also appears in environmental ethics, the ethics of artificial intelligence and neuroethics.