[164] in Vegetarian_Support_Group
re: plants vs. animals
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (elsiedee@MIT.EDU)
Wed Sep 7 18:34:26 1994
From: elsiedee@MIT.EDU
To: vsg@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 07 Sep 1994 18:33:41 EDT
Here is one response off the newsgroup.
------- Forwarded Message
To: ar-talk@cygnus.com
Subject: Re: Killing Plants vs. Animals Argument
Reply-To: young@clpd.Kodak.COM
- -->Message-Id: <9409070308.AA21508@w20-575-97.MIT.EDU>
- -->In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 06 Sep 1994 15:56:00 EDT."
- --> <2E6D1438@instigate.dataware.com>
- -->Date: Tue, 06 Sep 1994 23:08:16 EDT
- -->From: Laura C Dilley <elsiedee@MIT.EDU>
>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?
> ...
>
>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.
But that merely redirects the question to "pain," and doesn't
actually address the issue of "killing"...which was the original
question raised.
>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.
In the issue of "killing," why does it matter? Dead is dead, whether
the deceased is a plant or not.
>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.) :)
I disagree. Most meat-eaters who ask that question are trying to
resolve what they perceive to be a fatal inconsistency in the
philosophy.
- -Rich Young
(The view expressed herein may not reflect that of Eastman Kodak Company, Inc.)
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