But I think there is an ethical problem with eating meat, at least in the liberal tradition. Fundamental to the modern concept of human rights is the belief that those rights are inherent to every human. It’s not that we, as humans, are granting rights to each other because we would rather live in a society (our rights, that is, don’t flow from a social contract). Given that, how can we deny that other animals have similar inherent rights? We could say there’s a difference in kind, but what kind? Not by intelligence; Einstein doesn’t have any ‘greater’ rights than do I. By species? If by that we mean the ability to create genetically viable offspring, are transgendered individuals without the ability to reproduce humans, and have human rights? And if so, what makes us special in a way that we deserve rights that other animals don’t?

However, after talking with Scott about some practices (and reading his extremist vegan cookbooks, and watching certain videos in my PACS courses), I do have some concern for animal rights in the issue. However, I don’t actually object to killing them per se. It’s mistreating them. So, while they belong to the individual, it’s a lot easier to resolve dilemmas like this one for me.

And no, I don’t consider eating meat daily ok, as long as it’s free-range, etc, etc, etc. That level of meat isn’t sustainable with cruelty-free methods. (Then there’s the crazy hippie side of me which cares about food for all humans and stuff like that). By the same token, I’ve never seen a moral advantage to getting rid of meat and replacing it with eggs and milk – not that it’s hypocritical to go vegetarian and not vegan, but that eating large quantities of eggs and milk will result in just as much suffering as eating some meat.