Rethinking Life and Death Racists violate the principle of equality by giving greater weight to the interests of members of their own race when there is a clash between their interests and the interests of another race. Sexists violate the principle of equality by favoring the interests of their own sex. Similarly, speciesists allow the interests of their own species to override the greater interests of members of other species. The pattern is identical in each case. The destruction of the rainforests is not the only way in which the huge population of animals being raised for food contributes to warming the greenhouse.
Cattle fart large quantities of methane, the most potent of all greenhouse gases .
By eating so many animals and animal products we are helping to heat up our planet. How Are We To Live Hens, like humans in concentration camps, will cling tenaciously to life under the most miserable conditions. When the death of a disabled infant will lead to the birth of another infant with better prospects of a happy life, the total amount of happiness will be greater if the disabled infant is killed. The loss of happy life for the first infant is outweighed by the gain of a happier life for the second. Therefore, if killing the haemophiliac infant has no adverse effect on others, it would, according to the total view, be right to kill him.