If animals don’t have a higher right to life than plants, then what about humans? We’re animals, and if we don’t have a higher right to life, then how do you justify our feeding on other forms of life?

There are two issues here, the “right to life” and “justifying feeding.” To take the first, I consider the phrase “right to life” to be completely devoid of meaning; to say that something has a right to live is, as far as I’m concerned, as meaningless as saying that it has a right to be tall or a right to be purple or a right to be four-legged. I don’t “justify” our feeding on other creatures any more than I justify birds, lions, salmon, or spiders doing so.

DATE: 15 Feb 1997
UPDATE: 15 Feb 1997
ID: 182