Allowing meat eaters to drown is ethical because of the suffering it causes animals, an Oxford University academic has argued controversially.
dr Michael Plant, a happiness philosopher who eats meat himself, claims that according to some moral philosophies, letting people like him die can be justified.
His reasoning springs from a conflict of what he describes as two widely held beliefs.
The first is that people have a duty to save one another if it comes at a small cost. For example, jumping into a pond to save a drowning child but ruining the clothes in the process.
The second belief, claims Dr. Plan, is that it is wrong to eat meat because factory farmed animals can suffer. Livestock, such as chickens, can often be kept in cramped, filthy conditions before being slaughtered.
He says that this conflict leaves people who subscribe to the second faith in a morally interesting position when they encounter someone who eats meat and is drowning in a pond, and that actually letting them die might be the lesser evil .
An Oxford academic has argued that some moral philosophies allow people to fail to save meat eaters in life-and-death situations because their diet inflicts cruelty on factory farmed animals
Such farms, where animals like chickens are kept in cramped, filthy conditions and often suffer months of pain before being slaughtered, are controversial
Trending raw vegan food loved by Gwyneth Paltrow and Demi Moore could do more harm than good, nutrition expert warns
The raw vegan diet loved by Gwyneth Paltrow and Demi Moore may do more harm than good in the long run, an expert warns.
While going vegetarian or vegan has become popular lately, some are taking it to the extreme and eating only raw plant-based foods that can be consumed without cooking.
There are claims that ingredients can lose important nutrients and enzymes during the cooking process – and raw plant-based foods improve energy levels, prevent disease and promote overall health.
But dr Laura Brown, a lecturer in nutrition at Teesside University, warned that the diet could do more harm than good if followed over a long period of time.
Speaking to The Conversation’s website, she said some vegetables actually provide higher levels of nutrients when cooked, as the process helps break down cell walls and release nutrients.
For example, when spinach is cooked, the body can more easily absorb the calcium it contains.
Asparagus, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, kale and cauliflower are also more nutritious when cooked, she wrote.
“It seems to be generally accepted that doing or allowing harm is permissible – and may even be required – when it is the lesser evil,” he wrote in the Journal of Controversial Ideas.
“I argue that if eating meat is wrong on the grounds of animal suffering, then it seems plausible that rescuing strangers would be a greater evil than not rescuing them, and is therefore unnecessary when we consider the amount of suffering that occurs could all.’
dr Plant compares this to a pond scenario in which a person instead of a child sees a cruel dictator known for torturing his populace drowning.
Saving the dictator would allow them to continue inflicting suffering, so much like a meat eater, letting them drown might be the lesser evil.
He concedes that most readers will find this argument “absurd”.
But he counters that since a person’s year of eating meat is roughly equivalent to five years of chickens suffering vile conditions, the “negative well-being” created by that person over time is quite large.
dr Plant also concedes that some might argue that changing the meat eater’s life after rescuing it into a vegetarian is permissible to save.
But the moral merits of this might vary if the person is successfully converted, he adds.
“They would probably think your request was crazy and ignore it. “You won’t believe what happened to me today. I fell into the pond and would have drowned if someone hadn’t pulled me out. But that wasn’t the strange thing. The person who pulled me out then asked if I ate a lot of chicken and demanded that I stop.
“The reason we seriously advocate not rescuing the drowning dictator is that while the best outcome would be if you saved him and then successfully convinced him to do bad things, we recognize that that outcome is not at all probable.”
dr Plant concludes his argument by stating that there is a “profound and underestimated tension” between believing in saving lives and not eating factory farmed animals.
“Although we would not normally see these beliefs as relevant to one another, I have pointed out the simple problem that if we have these animal welfare concerns, if we consider them, it reduces and potentially eliminates the obligation to save others.” I find that surprising and disturbing,” he said.
dr Plant has previously described himself as a “benefactor,” someone who only eats animals if the creature in question lived happily before it died.
He does not specifically address in his article whether animal rights activists should be rescued in life-or-death situations.