Subjective experience and moral standing
Animal Sentience August 10, 2016 Andy Lamey
Klein & Barron's analysis examines the capacity for subjective experience in insects, not specifically pleasure or pain. They note that insects have traditionally been thought incapable of such experience. If future research shows some insect species are conscious but cannot feel pain, a philosophical question arises that ethicists have not addressed: whether a conscious creature lacking pain sensitivity has moral standing.