Factually speaking, no politics
The areas of the brain most often associated with human-like emotions (empathy, etc) are not present outside mamals. While Birds and Reptiles have affective states, the subjective quality of those states are probably not anything like the emotions we feel.
If mike the chicken had a brain-stem only, then even the affective states that birds have were probably lost to him.
Its well worth evaluating the state TS is in by using this comparison. The emotional palette of Mike the Chicken and TS are probably close to equal.
How that informs the decisionmaking process is left to reader, but it seems to make the case pretty obvious for me.
DL