sentient beings

Sentient beings are creatures capable of feeling, perceiving, and experiencing sensations—particularly pleasure and pain.

The phrase appears most often in philosophical, religious, and ethical contexts where the capacity for suffering matters: Buddhist teachings extend compassion to all sentient beings, and animal rights arguments often hinge on whether a creature qualifies as sentient.

The ethics of eating meat depends partly on how we regard sentient beings.

The term encompasses humans and animals but excludes plants and machines, though debates continue about where exactly the line falls.