Posted by Abhaya
(here)
thinking about it more and I felt like the "what about plants having rights then" argument was inevidable to follow. and rightfully so in many respects. But of course we have to kill to live on this plane of exsistance. horrible fact. But I was thinking about a compromise on where to draw the line on what forms of life are given rights. IMHO i think it only natural to base this on how conscious a being is, to the best of our ability to decifer (not perfect I know, but we can only do our best right?), beings which clearly have affection for their young, feel phsyical pain similar to how we feel it, display curriosity and awareness, should be given in my opinion rights of any sentiant being, and certainly the right to its life. And beings, which as far as we can tell, percieve the least levels of pain and least levels of awareness can be used as food. I think this is the best we can do IMO. Would love to hear ideas about where we can draw this line.