The Limits of Ethical Vegetarianism

Beginning of article

People choose to become vegetarians for a variety of reasons. Some think that it will make them healthier, a position that has been borne out by some studies. However, vegetarians tend to eat, smoke and drink less and exercise more than the population at large, so one cannot know for certain whether their improved health is due to their way of life or to their diets. Other people become vegetarians because they feel that breeding animals for slaughter is not the most efficient way of using land to produce food. Ethical vegetarians feel that it is morally wrong to kill animals to eat when one can live a healthy life without doing so. Their concerns suggest that some guidelines for humanists to follow regarding the treatment of animals are desirable.

FLAWED CHOICES

Some people who call themselves vegetarians abstain from only red meat, but eat fish and seafood. Their attitude may arise from deep psychological aversion to blood and guilt and about eating "higher" animals. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to believe that fish dragged out of the sea are not extremely distressed by asphyxia, or that they do not suffer pain when hooks are pulled out of their palates. …