ETHICS

Humanity Will Ban Meat Before it Bans Abortion

Why it’s easier to give personhood to a cow than a fetus

Image credit: Evelyn Simak (Wikimedia Commons)

Try this: think of some important beliefs you hold. They should be beliefs of a moral or existential nature, the kind that help you understand who you are and how you ought to be in the world. They can be controversial, or they can be perfectly conventional, but try to pick ones that at least a slim majority of humanity would sympathize with.

Now imagine it’s 2124, and ask yourself: in a hundred years’ time, which of my beliefs will most of humanity reject?

I like this thought experiment because it asks us to consider what is universal and what is contingent in the realm of human values. How, for example, do certain universal values imply different moral duties in different times and places, depending on what kinds of arguments and counter-arguments are available?

I first did this thought experiment a few years ago, when one of my sons decided he wanted to be a pescatarian. He objected on ethical grounds to the eating of most kinds of meat, and we respected his choice, trying to provide as many pescatarian and vegetarian options at home as we could.

I realized then that, while my actions indicated my acceptance of the proposition that…