Meat is Murder
Last updated
Last updated
It is sometimes argued that the word 'murder' is inappropriate to describe the deliberate killing of someone who is sentient, if that individual isn't human.
It is worth noting that there are definitions of 'murder' from reputable dictionaries that do not define murder as exclusively applicable to humans alone: Murder, v, 2 "to slaughter wantonly" Murder, v, 5 "to kill or slaughter inhumanly or barbarously"
But English is a living language, so the meanings of different words change over time, and definitions don't tell us much about the underlying philosophy. When we gatekeep words like 'murder' to only apply to one species, it serves to maintain the tacit implication that other animals do not matter in the same way humans do. This is a part of speciesism - the assignment of moral value based on species alone, rather than the more philosophically relevant trait of sentience/consciousness. In a vacuum, if a human was completely brain dead, would it be possible to murder them? All that they were is already dead, and all that remains is their body. Whereas there are non-human animals alive right now who genuinely do feel pleasure, pain, and have a desire to continue to live their lives. They are worthy of moral consideration, and therefore it is useful to be able to distinguish the killing of them as accidental as opposed to premeditated and unconsensual, and to be able to distinguish the taking of life that is conscious as opposed to not conscious. There have been formal debates about this, such as this one at Cambridge. The audience voted that meat is in fact murder.
Initial vote (0:01:35) In favour: "80-90% of the room" Opposed: 10 votes Abstained: 7 votes Concluding vote (1:15:00) In favour: about the same Opposed: 3 fewer votes Abstained: 2 fewer votes