Some people think it is wrong to kill animals for food. It is sometimes argued that the killing of animals should be avoided for health reasons or because it is bad for the environment (which it probably isn’t, see here and here) but the big reason that many people are vegans is because they think killing an animal is wrong for pretty much the same reason killing a human is wrong. Are vegans right?
Let’s start at the beginning: Why do we consider it wrong to kill other human beings? Here are two reasons someone might give:
1. I wouldn’t want someone to kill me, so I shouldn’t kill any body else.
2. Humans can experience pain, pleasure, fall in love, admire the beauty of a sunset and this conscious experience is morally valuable and should not be destroyed unnecessarily.
Both of these reasons require that whatever we give moral consideration to has to have awareness and desires. We don’t give moral consideration to a rock or to an oak tree because it can’t think and feel in the same way we can. I think this shows why veganism goes too far: scallops and oysters probably don’t have desires nor do they have the kind of self-awareness we humans have. The only argument I’ve heard in response from vegans is “Where do you draw the line? If we can kill an oyster for food, we can just as easily kill a tuna fish, then a chicken, a cow, and next we can cannibalize a low IQ human being!”
But we don’t have to avoid all meat in order to draw a line somewhere. After all, on most highways it isn’t necessarily more dangerous to drive 72 miles an hour instead of just 70, but that hasn’t stopped us from finding a speed limit. If it makes vegans more comfortable, we could even try to err on the side of caution with our line-drawing (if we are in doubt about an animal being self-aware, we won’t eat it).
I wonder sometimes if it is wrong to eat cows and other animals that seem to be conscious. Part of me thinks that if it’s wrong to kill a human because it is conscious, it has to be wrong to kill a conscious animal. On the other hand, my gut tells me there can’t be anything wrong with killing a cow or deer. What do you think about resolving that dilemma?
