Human-Animal Adoption: Bioethical Challenges and Considerations

Nowadays, talking about animal adoption requires addressing several aspects that are inherent to this field, which collectively influence the outcome of the adoption process to varying extents. This outcome ultimately concerns the quality of the relationship that established through the adoption process between the adopter and the adopted animal, and then between the latter and their social context of life. However, the path of human-animal adoption, as a novel way through which humans choose to relate to domesticated animals, and which has its origins in the domestication process, raises numerous bioethical challenges. Among these challenges are issues related to the initial search for the desired animal, the motivations driving such choices, and the subsequent day-to-day management of the adopted animal. The adopter’s assumption of both legal and moral responsibility must, first and foremost, be supported by an operational system underpinning the adoption framework, in which all stakeholders contribute with ethical expertise. This article aims to examine several key points that are particularly relevant in establishing, at least partially, a bioethics-based framework for promoting a conscientious and responsible adoption process. Such a framework should foster the development of human-animal relationships that safeguard the well-being of both species, closely interconnected yet fundamentally distinct.