JUC writes:
All life has to die in the end. Is it not better to live and be eaten, than never to live at all?
greaseal replies:
I think the simulacrum you're running in your brain breaks down at that point. You cannot compare non-existence with existence, you can't even sensibly ask the question. If you could call up one of the quadrillions of sperm and eggs that never made it, and somehow instantly get the resultant animal to speak, and say "are you glad you don't exist?" you'd not get a very coherent result...
I take your point, but if we're talking about whether or not we should farm animals, this really is the dilemma we're faced with.
Again, it raises the question: is our moral concern to do with
our behaviour (i.e. is it simply "wrong, period" in any circumstances to eat meat), or is the concern to do with the welfare and survival of the animal to be eaten?
I think I've said more than enough on this subject already, so I would summarise my view as follows:
- There is nothing fundamentally wrong with eating meat; it is perfectly natural. I still don't think anyone has made a case for it being "wrong, period" on a point of pure principle.
- In modern cultures and societies, many people are so removed from the slaughtering process that they have caring instincts that are much more highly developed than their kill-to-eat instincts, and so they are squeamish at the idea of killing and eating animals. Those people are free to make the choice not to eat meat.
- It is wrong to farm an animal to eat it if the animal in question is intelligent and sensitive enough to understand it's fate (as in the hypothetical case of aliens farming humans), which would cause it great distress.
- It is wrong to cause any needless suffering or low quality of life to any farmed animal (such as intensive factory farming).
- It is wrong to hunt any animal to the point of extinction, if for no other reason then at least because you won't be able to sustain the activity!
- The above wrongful actions can be superseded by emergency survival necessity. Pretty much anything is fair game in an emergency.