Buddhist Beliefs

(2) The Buddhists hold that every creature fears death, and suffers in it (or in the thought of it), and that therefore it is wrong to kill any living thing. On the other side it can be argued that every living thing dies anyway, and that suffering is unavoidable except for trained Buddhists. Does this undermine the case for the Buddhist doctrine of non-injury to living things, or is there still a case?

The Buddhist doctrine of non-injury to living things is, of course, a natural consequence of the emphasis Buddhists place on the virtue of compassion. This is why most Buddhists are vegetarians.

Most of us non-Buddhists, however, are not vegetarians. So we believe, at least implicitly, that it is morally permissible to kill animals
In these pens the calves cannot perform such basic actions as grooming themselves, which they naturally desire to do, because there is not room for them to twist their heads around. It is clear that the calves miss their mothers, and like human infants they want something to suck: they can be seen trying vainly to suck the sides of their stalls. In order to keep their meat pale and tasty, they are fed a liquid diet deficient in both iron and roughage. Naturally they develop cravings for these things, because they need them. The calf's craving for iron is so strong that, if it is allowed to turn around, it will lick at its own urine, although calves normally find this repugnant. The tiny stall, which prevents the animal from turning, solves this "problem". The craving for roughage is especially strong since without it the animal cannot form a cud to chew. It cannot be given any straw for bedding, since the animal would be driven to eat it, and that would spoil the meat…. (James Rachels in "A Moral Defense of
But here is one consideration which is not a moral justification. You could say, in your defense, that everyone else around you eats meat, so it must be OK. But that is not a moral defense. The institution of slavery in the past had a similar excuse ("other white folks I know own slaves, so it must be OK"). Just because something is a widely accepted practice in society does not automatically mean that it is the morally right thing to do. You have to examine the question whether it is morally right or wrong for yourself, no matter what most other people around you believe or do. As Confucius says in the Analects, "Even if everyone says it's right, you have to investigate the matter for yourself. Even if everyone says it's wrong, you have to investigate the matter for