This November, LML Deputy Director Prof Jeff Skopek was invited by Prof Kimberly Krawiec to discuss his work in progress, “Created to be Killed” on her Taboo Trades podcast.
The conversation explored a challenging ethical question about the practice of raising and killing animals for food (or for medical research, etc.): If these animals were to be given good lives and painless deaths, and if they would not otherwise exist, would this practice be good for them overall?
The claim that this practice would be good for them can be a claim about the individual animals, their species, or animals in the aggregate — each of which raises further challenging questions: Is a happy but brief life better than no life at all? Do species have interests, and if so, are they morally relevant? What is the appropriate counterfactual for assessing whether they are harmed?
Prof Skopek argued that the best answers to these questions expose flaws in this potential justification for eating animals, while also revealing counterintuitive implications for the decision not to do so.
We are pleased to share this collaboration between Prof Skopek and Prof Krawiec, who delivered LML’s Baron de Lancey Lecture earlier this year, highlighting LML’s commitment to fostering mutually enriching partnerships.
The podcast can be accessed here.