Moral Decisions Depend Entirely on the Presence or Absence of Empathy

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I have spent my entire Sunday morning reading detailed descriptions of how most cows, pigs and chickens live and die. I have been crying and found that I had to stop periodically to calm my visceral responses to the horrors described. If I weren't already a vegan, I would most certainly become one now. Though I already knew the facts of slaughterhouses and dairy and egg industries, reading this text provided me with a renewed connection to this almost invisible reality. There is simply no moral, physical, economic or environmental justification for using animals for food or other products.

In thinking about my thesis, it has become clear to me that morality is inextricably connected with empathy.  

Mark Bernstein makes this point beautifully.

Consider a totally reasonable, intelligent individual who is completely devoid of emotions; a futuristic robot would fit the bill. It sees persons starving to death in sub-Saharan Africa but cannot react to them emotionally. The robot has no sympathy or empathy for these people. It cannot feel sorry for what they are going through or put itself in their shoes. The robot does not care about these people at all. Were human beings like this, we would think of them as leading lives far less rich than our own. Regardless of how intelligent they are or how well they can reason, this lack of sentiment excludes them from the realm of moral agents. Our emotional lives are what trigger our thinking about ethical issues. If we could not care about others, morality simply could not be an issue for us. -- Bernstein, Mark H. (2004-05-27). Without a Tear: Our Tragic Relationship with Animals (pp. 92-93). Ingram Distribution. Kindle Edition.

We live in a society that promotes narcissism and selfishness, viewing empathy as weakness that gets in the way of individual goals. This type of thinking is rooted in societies driven by profit and power. One of the tactics used by the powerful to promote their own agendas is to objectify various groups of people and to use propaganda techniques to lower their moral status. Nazi Germany is, of course, the most famous overt example of this, but it was also true for justifying slavery, and misogyny. In order to exploit and dominate someone else, one must first be able to separate herself from them, to lack empathy for them as it were. Eliminating empathy is also a standard training method of military personnel. Without this training, soldiers wouldn't be able to kill their "enemy".

The enormous propaganda campaigns surrounding the torture and murder of non-human animals includes keeping it invisible from us, having us believe that it is "humane" and that those on death row are living "happy", 'free-range" lives. It uses slogans like "Got Milk", "Beef. It's what's for dinner", "the Incredible Edible Egg" and aims at convincing us to consume products that are wholly bad for us and which we don't need at all. Invisibility, misinformation, and lies of necessity are also used in war propaganda. All of this is done in the name of profit. There is absolutely no concern for animal welfare, let alone the welfare of the consumer. It's important to remember that corporations have every reason to lie about their treatment of animals. Vegans have no reason to lie about it. Consuming animal products harms everyone, being vegan harms no one.

Anyone with an ounce of empathy would have extreme difficulty consuming a steak after witnessing a living, conscious, terrified cow struggling for survival hanging from a meat hook (a common occurrence), or eating a hot dog after seeing a pig collapse from heat exhaustion in a cramped transport truck and being trampled to death (also common), or a chicken being boiled alive to loosen her feathers (extremely common) If you don't feel anything by these minimal descriptions of the horror faced by billions of sentient creatures (including members of our own species), perhaps it's time for you to evaluate your own moral sensibilities and ask whether the pleasure of the taste of these creatures is worth what they endure on a daily basis.