A Moral Defense Of Meat Eating Rhetorical Analysis

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The morals of meat-eating Is eating meat morally right? This is the basis for every argument for or against vegetarianism. In James Rachel's "Moral defense of vegetarianism", he states that he feels the consumption and use of animals for food is wrong. While Michelle Carter's article, "Medium Rare Morals: A Moral Justification of Meat Eating", counters Rachel's basic argument that eating meat is morally wrong. There are multiple reasons stated in Rachel's article on why it is wrong to eat meat. The main point in her article is that to eat meat is to support a cruel system of meat production. Rachels argues against Kant's belief that animals do not have a moral standing and are merely a means to an end, which is man. Rachels believes that…show more content…
Carter argues to support or enhance the key issues that eating meat is right based on superiority, self-consciousness, reasoning, moral capability, rights, duties, and sentience. Carter shows that the statement that animals have an interest in their own lives and that we should not treat them like things is a cornerstone in many vegetarian theories. But then he questions this argument in that even the smallest insect has an interest in its own life, but you do not see people actively opposing the killing of all living creatures. He also questions the statement that animals can even make this assertion and are not just living out of basic instinct. And, although a creature may try to stay alive, is it doing so out of the fact it doesn't want to die, or the basic instinct that it has to stay alive. Carter argues that the only benefit of an animal wanting to live longer would be more life. And, that if they are not conscious of that; if they do not realize or appreciate that life, then, he states, one could reason that it is less cruel to put them down painlessly while they are still healthy. Carter also makes the case of human superiority, in that either we are not superior to animals, and knowing this gives us permission to eat them. Or we are not superior animals, and…show more content…
I believe that it is not morally wrong to eat animals. While animals may be able to notice pain and emanate danger to themselves, I think that they have no real self awareness that would enable them to make judgments based upon these feelings. An example would be a moose that is being attacked by wolves. The moose tries to stay alive merely because it does not want to feel pain out of a basic instinct, not because it is aware of the fact it will die and cease to exist. I agree with carter in that without a language animals are unable to form thought and reason, and thereby have no realization of there existence. I also believe in the eating of meat because of natural order, I believe that, because we are a superior race we possess the right to eat weaker animals to survive, just as the wolf eats the rabbit because the rabbit is the wolves natural prey. Although vegetarians may argue that because we are able to reason and discern that another organism is feeling pain, unlike the wolf, we have an obligation to our prey to not cause them pain. But I believe that while we may cause pain to another animal, it is the natural order, animals that are born as prey are preyed upon, whether or not they are born on a farm or in the wilderness doesn't change the fact that they are still able to satisfy a predators needs. Rachels and other vegetarians claim that

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