Is eating meat ethical? If so, why doesn't this apply to human flesh?

[emrekaankeles]

If killing and eating humans is not ethical, why is killing and eating animals considered ethical? Is it because humans are superior creatures or because animals do not have much life expectancy and desire to live and their consciousness is weaker?

[dynamicyandere]

Is it unethical when a bear eats a salmon?


They’re omnivores, like humans, so although they could try surviving on fruits and berries and honey, they thrive best with a more balanced diet that includes meat.


It’s healthiest for humans to subscribe to an omnivorous diet. The longest-living humans (which can be found in Okinawa) also have an omnivorous diet.


Is it unethical to live healthy? It it unethical to live long? Should every species have a cut-off point of how long they are allowed to live?


These are all highly philosophical questions without a clear objective answer. One could argue for either or.


All I know is that all creatures on earth are part of an interconnected ecosystem.


Nature is designed to have a circle of life. Predators, prey, a food chain, a self-sustaining cycle that never ends.


I would say the ethical thing to do is to understand this circle of life, and understand how us humans are part of this elaborate and interconnected ecosystem.


The ethical thing to do is to practice sustainability, so that although we are apex predators, we should try our best to exercise sustainability so that the earth and all its creatures can continue to flourish and live in harmony.


That way all creatures will continue on living instead of being artificially driven to extinction.


So, if we’re going into ethics, it’s bigger than just meat. It’s more than that. We need to take a big step back and ask how are humans impacting the world as a whole?


How can we all thrive together as creatures of the same planet?

[Oliverlogan263]

Those are some deep questions bro. For me, here's how I see it -

Eating meat itself isn't unethical in my view. Animals eat other animals, it's part of the natural cycle of life. But the way some farms mass produce meat nowadays isn't really natural either.

As for why humans shouldn't eat each other - there are a few key factors:

1. Consent - Animals can't give consent to be killed, but humans have a basic right to decide what happens to their own bodies.

2. Society - If people started casually eating each other, society wouldn't function very well. We need to cooperate.

3. Evolution - We evolved as a social, intelligent species that takes care of each other. Part of what makes us human is living in harmony.

4. Compassion - Most people believe all living things deserve to feel safe and live without fear of violence. Even animals we eat.

So in essence, I don't think it's about some species being "superior." It comes down to ethics, community and our ability to feel each other's pain. We're all just trying to live and let live, you know?

[Kori1236]

Slightly unrelated but it does lead into it, but watch the two viruses that we’ve had for millions of years by PBS Eons it goes over how the virus herpes was introduced to our dna. It gives one of the reasons to not eat humans lol.


Anthropophagy is the practice of eating human flesh.
To cannibalize another human isn’t unheard of in fact it happened a lot in times of famine. There are likely tribes around the world that cannibalize humans or did at one point and while it is considered taboo in todays society it also comes with dangers. If you were to cannibalize your buddy and ate his brain you would open yourself up to a brain disease called kuru similar to mad cow disease. Basically Kuru is transmitted through our brains prions that essentially replicated throughout the brain causing cellular death, and eventual clinical death.


Eating meat in general I’m biased as I am a meat eater; and some meat providers don’t provide their animals a good QOL before death. I curb this by supporting local farmers and butchers for my meat so I know how the animal was raised and slaughtered. It doesn’t fix the problem of mass production but it does make me feel a bit better knowing where my meat comes from.

[jennifer_bloom]

The reason humans are allowed to kill animals is that they need to kill the animal to survive. I think it is 100% wrong to kill anything unless you have to kill it to live, like a tuna fish for omega 3 or an insect that might eat your food and give you germs etc..

[Nuget]

It's just the way mother nature intended it to be.