måndag 17 juni 2013

Question to vegan: Moral difference between killing an animal and eating a plant?

A person wrote:
" Since plants have life too, as you noted earlier, then it doesn't seem to me we should stop at killing and eating meat, we should also stop killing and eating plants, right?"

I don't believe you think cutting the grass is comparable to stabbing a dog. We recognize that stabbing a dog is immoral because that it causes unnecessary suffering and death upon a sentient being, which is also why we should be morally opposed to the industralized animal abuse in the meat-, milk and egg industry, hunting, and any other unnecessary killing.

I recommend this post about plants: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/a-frequently-asked-question-what-about-plants/

It shows that plants are not sentient and they don't feel pain and suffering.
If you still think that plants are consciousness, just like we are and all the other animals are, then avoid killing them. You don't need to. See the paragraph further down.

If you kill and eat cows - then you kill an innocent and sentient cow; and in total you consume more than 10 times more plants are consumed (the food of the cow) compared to the amount of plants you would have had to consume if you ate a vegan diet. This is also why we will eliminate starvation and poverty if everyone eats a vegan diet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fws0f9s4Bas

"Poor countries sell their grain to the West while their own children starve in their arms. And we feed it to livestock. So we can eat a steak? Am I the only one who sees this as a crime? Every morsel of meat we eat is slapping the tear-stained face of a starving child. When I look into her eyes, should I be silent?
The earth can produce enough for everyone’s need. But not enough for everyone’s greed."

You can just eat the seeds of the plants and not kill the plants, if you believe that plants are sentient: http://bloganders.blogspot.se/2013/05/the-connection-of-eating-meat-and.html

I showed in my last comment why it is unethical to consume any kind of animal Products.

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It is well-known scientifically that animals are conscious and feel pain, and that plants are not conscious and don’t feel pain.
See e.g. this about plants:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=do-plants-think-daniel-chamovitz
“Plants exhibit elements of anoetic consciousness which doesn’t include, in my understanding, the ability to think.  Just as a plant can’t suffer subjective
pain in the absence of a brain, I also don’t think that it thinks.”


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Another post:
It has been mentioned previously in this thread. I think that everyone understand the moral difference between uprooting a plant and killing an animal. If we saw someone abusing an animal we would step in and protect the animal, if someone is stepping on, or cutting grass, or cutting down a tree, we don’t believe this is harming any sentient being.
Learn more in this article: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/a-frequently-asked-question-what-about-plants/#.UciBjJxW6nk
The people who still believe that plants are sentient, can eat of the seeds and the fruits without uprooting any plant.

When it comes to consuming animals, however, it is clear that this isn’t ethical. I will show why.
“Most people would agree with the proposition that it’s wrong to inflict unnecessary suffering and death on animals. We could have an interesting philosophical discussion about what 'necessity' means but the reality is if it means anything, if it means anything at all, it means we can’t justify suffering and death for reasons of pleasure, amusement or convenience.

If we had a rule that said, ‘It’s wrong to inflict unnecessary suffering on children, but it’s OK to beat them if you enjoy watching them suffer’, that would create an exception that would not only be perverse but would make the rule silly.
Similarly if we say it’s wrong to inflict suffering and death on animals, well what’s our justification for eating meat? We don’t need to eat animals to be optimally healthy. I have been a vegan for going on now 31 years and I would daresay that I have more energy and suffer from fewer colds and viruses than most of the people I teach who are young enough to be my grandchildren. So the idea that you need animal products to be optimally healthy is simply false.

The best justification that we have for inflicting suffering and death on 56 billion animals a year is that they taste good. We are saying it’s wrong to inflict unnecessary suffering on animals, but on the other hand we participate in this all the time. “
Quote: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/vege-mice-response/4674360

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