[159] in Vegetarian_Support_Group
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daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Laura C Dilley)
Tue Sep 6 23:09:27 1994
To: vsg@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 06 Sep 1994 23:08:21 EDT
From: Laura C Dilley <elsiedee@MIT.EDU>
I joined a newsgroup recently, AR-Talk, which is concerned with animal rights issues (some of which overlap with
vegetarianism). The following message was posted to the group:
>There are many arguments associated with the animal rights and vegetarian
>issue.
>One that I have had to endure repeatedly is: If it is wrong to kill animals,
>then why is it okay to kill plants? I am a strong believer in the theory
>that specism is analogous to sexism and racism. What I am trying to do here
>is come up with some arguments with which to fend off my friends. I am
>familiar with the argument that vegetarianism is the lesser of two evils.
>Obviously we have to eat something. I imagine it would be impossible to
>survive on a non-organic diet. I also understand the environmentaladvantages of a meatless diet. I often have to use this point as a last
>ditch effort. I end up saying, "The environmental benefits alone are enough ".
>This does not seem to cut it. If anyone has any other arguments, please
>let me know.
>Thank You,
>Sid Pain
>spayne@dataware.com
I actually replied to this message, marking the first time I have ever replied to one of these major newsgroup
things. Here was my reply:
To: AR-Talk <ar-talk@cygnus.com>
Subject: Re: Killing Plants vs. Animals Argument
In-reply-to: Your message of "Tue, 06 Sep 1994 15:56:00 EDT."
<2E6D1438@instigate.dataware.com>
--------
Sid Pain wrote:
>There are many arguments associated with the animal rights and vegetarian
>issue. One that I have had to endure repeatedly is: If it is wrong to kill animals,
>then why is it okay to kill plants?
...
>If anyone has any other arguments, please
>let me know.
>Thank You,
>Sid Pain
>spayne@dataware.com
I have come up against this one before. My answer (if the person who is asking is serious) is that animals have
nervous systems, whereas plants do not, and that animals feel pain just as humans do, or so current research
would indicate. Also, it seems likely that animals are cognizant and sentient, certainly that they react to the
world in complex, intelligent ways. It doesn't seem that plants could be cognizant or sentient.
Often the person who is asking isn't really being completely serious anyway, so it might be better just to treat
the question as a joke and respond in kind. (It should be obvious, even to a meat-eater, that the question is
not just about whether to consume something that is/was alive or not, but about the kind of life and
intelligence/sentience/consciousness and whether it is ethical (?) to eat something that is intelligent. A
meat-eater who asks this question is just trying to sidestep the issues.) :)
That's my $.02.
Laura Dilley
elsiedee@athena.mit.edu
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So, whaddya think? I welcome any comments/opinions.
