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(intro music)

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My name is Tyler Doggett.

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I teach at the University of Vermont,

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and I'm going to talk about[br]whether it's morally

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permissible to kill animals for food.

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One thing I'm not going to talk about is

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whether it's morally permissible[br]to eat animals for food.

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I'm also not going to talk[br]about whether it's okay,

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morally okay, to buy animals for food.

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What I want to talk about[br]is whether it's morally

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permissible to kill animals[br]for food in the first place.

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And we do kill a lot of[br]animals for food each year.

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Millions of pigs are[br]killed for food each year.

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Is that permissible?

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Over twenty million pigs were[br]killed last year for food.

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Is that morally permissible?

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In particular, is it morally[br]permissible to kill pigs

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for food that we don't need to eat?

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I'm not talking about a situation

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where you're all alone on a desert island,

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and if you don't kill that[br]pig, you're going to die.

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I'm talking about the[br]situation where in right now,

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which is we don't have[br]to kill pigs to eat.

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We could all eat kale sandwiches.

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But instead, because they're delicious,

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we kill millions of pigs each year.

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Is that morally permissible?

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That's what I want to talk about.

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But let's talk about a[br]different question first.

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Is it morally permissible[br]to kill people for food?

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Again, I'm not talking about a situation

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like the Donner Party, or situations

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where people crash land[br]on a deserted island,

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and if they don't eat each[br]other, they're going to die.

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I mean, would it be[br]permissible for you to keep

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some stranger in your house[br]and kill that stranger

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for food, rather[br]than eat a kale sandwich.

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We don't have to talk about[br]that question for very long

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That has an easy answer: no!

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It is morally impermissible to kill people

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for food you don't need to eat.

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So let me ask you this.

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If it is permissible to kill pigs for food

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but not permissible to[br]kill people for food,

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there must be some difference[br]between pigs and people

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that explains why it's permissible

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to kill the pig but not the person.

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So what's the difference?

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Here's an idea.

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The pig is a pig.

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The person is a person.

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So this difference, I think, is supposed

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to be a difference in genetic makeup,

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the type of DNA the pig has

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that's different from our genetic makeup.

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So is that the kind of[br]difference that explains

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why it's morally[br]permissible to kill the pig

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but not morally permissible to kill us?

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Let me ask you this.

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There's a Twilight Zone[br]episode called "To Serve Man."

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If you want to see that episode,

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you should skip this part of the video,

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because I'm going to give[br]away something very important.

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In the Twilight Zone episode

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"To Serve Man," aliens come to earth and,

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to make a long story short,[br]they're farming us for food.

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Is that morally permissible?

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You might think, "No!

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"It's not permissible for[br]me to eat people for food

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"I don't need. Neither is it[br]permissible for aliens to eat us."

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But then imagine the alien[br]says, "But don't you see?

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"You're a different sort of[br]creature than we are.

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"We have totally different[br]genetic makeups."

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That does not seem like a very good

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answer the alien's given.

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One thing you might say is, "Yes, I see

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"that we have different genetic makeups

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"but I'm still the kind of[br]thing you shouldn't kill."

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But a pig might say that to us[br]if we say, "It's permissible

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"for us to kill you because[br]you're a pig and we are people."

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But maybe what you're getting[br]at when you say, "A pig's a pig;

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a person, a person" is people are special

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because, well, for one thing,

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we're quite a bit smarter than pigs

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which isn't to say pigs are dummies.

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Pigs are pretty smart.

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People are just smarter.

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Okay.

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One thing you might ask is,

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"Why does that make it okay to kill the pig?"

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But that's not what I want to ask,

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because while I think[br]you're smarter than a pig,

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you're watching a philosophy video.

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Not everyone is smarter than a pig.

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In fact, we all know some creatures,

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some people even probably,[br]who are not smarter than pigs.

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Is it okay to eat those people?

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No!

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That's not a hard question.

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Now, one reason it might be[br]you shouldn't eat people

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who have mental lives as pigs:[br]we care about those people.

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It might be that my brother[br]has the mental life of a pig,

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but it would be wrong to kill him for food,

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because I care about him.

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But let me ask you two things about this.

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First, why does caring about[br]my brother make a difference?

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If the reason it's wrong to[br]kill my severely mentally

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handicapped brother for food[br]is because I care about him,

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then what you're saying[br]is the reason it's wrong

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doesn't have to do with my brother,

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so much as it has does to do with me.

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And that does not seem correct.

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It seems like there's something[br]about what you're doing

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to my brother when you kill him for food

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that's objectionable.

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that has nothing to do with[br]what you're doing to me.

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Now let me ask you a different question:

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what if no one cared about my brother?

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What if my brother, with the[br]mental life of a pig or a hermit,

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no one cared about him?

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No one even knew about him?

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Would it be permissible[br]to kill him for food then?

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I don't think so.

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I still think this is not a hard question.

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What we're looking for is a difference

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between people and pigs that explains

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why it's morally permissible[br]to kill pigs for food

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but not permissible to kill people.

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And we've tried some differences out.

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They're different species,

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but that doesn't really[br]seem to explain it.

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People are smarter in general than pigs.

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That doesn't seem to explain it either.

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We care about people,[br]don't care about pigs.

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That doesn't seem to explain it either.

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What else?

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Well, here's something people say

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sometimes when you talk about this:

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"The pig would do it to us."

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Put a person with a pig.

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The pig might eventually eat the person.

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Does that show it's morally permissible

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for the person to eat the pig?

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Let me ask you a different question.

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Have you ever been punched[br]by a very small child?

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I have.

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Do you think it was permissible for[br]me to punch the child back,

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reasoning, "He did it to me; therefore,

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it's permissible for me to do it to him"?

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I think that would not be[br]very good reasoning.

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It would be wrong to punch the child,

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even though the child would do it to me.

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In fact, I think the child,[br]if the child is young enough,

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doesn't do anything wrong[br]if it does it to me.

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The child is not the kind[br]of thing that does anything

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right or wrong, but still,[br]we might do wrong to it.

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Last difference:

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we're at the top of the food chain.

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where we live in places where[br]we can watch philosophy videos.

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Obviously, if we lived in the ocean,

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we wouldn't be at the[br]top of the food chain.

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But where we are, we're the[br]top of the food chain,

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so isn't it morally permissible[br]for us to take advantage

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of that and kill whatever[br]we want for food?

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It might be that we're in a[br]position to do various things

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to other animals because we're[br]the top of the food chain,

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but that doesn't mean it's morally

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permissible for us to do it.

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I'm a very small person,

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so I'm constantly dealing with people

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who are much bigger than I am,

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who are much stronger than I am,

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who could pound me to a pulp very easily.

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Well, imagine they did.

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And I said, "You shouldn't have done that!

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"That was morally wrong."

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And they say, "But don't you see?

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"I'm stronger than you."

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That's terrible reasoning.

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Of course, they're stronger than me.

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What I wanted to know is why it was okay

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for them to express their[br]strength in that way.

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Similarly, it might be that we're above

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the pig on the food chain,

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and as you get ready[br]to kill the pig to eat it,

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the pig might say, "Why[br]are you eating me?"

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We just say, "We can.

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"We have control over you."

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That does not seem like[br]a very good answer.

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Sometimes people say something related

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which is "That's just the way nature is.

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"That's why it's morally permissible."

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But it's natural to do all sorts

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of things that are morally wrong.

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If you're listening to this video

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and getting really frustrated,

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it's natural to want to punch me.

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It might be natural to punch me.

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But that doesn't mean you should do it.

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So I'm perplexed.

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I started off asking

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whether it's okay to kill pigs for food.

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To answer that question, I asked,[br]first, a very easy question:

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whether it's okay to kill people for food.

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That's an easy question.

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The answer is "No."

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Then I asked, "What's the[br]difference between people and pigs,

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"such that it's permissible[br]to kill pigs for food

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"even though it's not[br]permissible to kill people?"

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And I've gone through[br]a bunch of differences.

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None of them seem like they[br]do the work that's required.

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None of them seem like they[br]explain why it's okay to kill

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pigs for food but it's not[br]okay to kill people for food.

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So I hope you'll help me[br]figure out the answer,

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or decide it's morally[br]wrong to kill pigs for food.

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Thanks.