Natural Harm

February 6th, 2013
morality
A: Life begins at conception. From that point on the embryo is a person and has the same moral status as a child.

B: What do you think of diseases that kill small children?

A: They're horrible and we must eliminate them.

B: The children?

A: The diseases!

B: Sorry! What do you think of embryos that die between conception and birth? [1]

A: Because of abortions?

B: No, because they just die on their own.

A: Natural embryo loss and miscarrages? They're just things that happen. It can be very sad for the parents, but it's not a moral issue like abortion.

B: What about animal suffering?

A: Animal suffering counts just like human suffering, and we should minimize it. Factoring farming is horrible. If you keep a cat you shouldn't let it outside because cats kill birds. Consider giving up meat.

B: What about suffering of animals in nature? [2]

A: Again, that's just something that happens. It's not a moral issue.


Update 2013-02-08: I agree with B.


[1] The Scourge: Moral Implications of Natural Embryo Loss (Toby Ord, 2008)

[2] The Importance of Wild-Animal Suffering (Brian Tomasik, 2009)

Comment via: google plus, facebook, substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

I did a meditation and it sort of changed my personality?!

a trip report

via benkuhn.net November 8, 2026

The bad part about rape is all the rape

I have recently seen a lot of people casually refer to consensual non-consent orgies as “rape orgies”.

via Thing of Things November 6, 2026

“We should be more ambitious with the software we build”

Since early this year, Michael Malis (of pgrust) has been showing me interesting things he's done and saying [W]e should be more ambitious1 with the software we build There is, understandably, a lot of skepticism about projects like pgrust because there…

via Posts on October 24, 2026

more     (via openring)