In discussions with non-vegans, the issue of “drawing the line” is often raised as a sort of objection to veganism. Since vegans haven’t achieved perfection of purity in the art of non-harming and non-violence, it is really only a matter of line-drawing, and until one achieves the perfection of purity that not even a Jainist can claim, one has no business criticizing any other lines that might be drawn, so the argument goes.

Drawing lines can be difficult in any area of morality. However, the difficulty of drawing precise lines should not deter us from exploring minimum standards or moral baselines that are reasonable for the vast majority of people in society, even if it would require a complete abolition of animal agriculture.

We establish and philosophically defend moral baselines regularly in society in the form of laws regarding such issues as murder, involuntary manslaughter and assault, even though these issues can be just as difficult to draw lines in as animal issues. None of us are 'pure' when it comes to protecting humans from cruelty and death either; yet we do draw lines: we aren’t cannibals; and most of us don’t knowingly or happily support human enslavement and slaughter.

We ought also to establish and philosophically defend such baselines regarding animals. Instead, we have a morally relative (and wrong) laissez-faire policy of refusing to even discuss line-drawing regarding animals, despite their overwhelming similarities to us in terms of the morally relevant characteristics: sentience and perceptual intelligence and awareness.

Given the morally relevant similarities and irrelevant differences between humans and other animals, veganism is the baseline we ought to promote and live by. Veganism is not the end point or the most we can do; rather, it is the least we can do.

Choosing to consume animal products is a choice to partake in the exploitation and intentional slaughter of sentient beings. Given our wide variety of food choices today, we can easily refuse to partake in such exploitation and slaughter. In many cases, such as this one, drawing lines can be very appropriate and strongly defended, especially when one acknowledges that the line drawn is only a minimum standard of decency, not a maximum standard of purity.

The unabridged version of this blog entry is available here:

http://unpopularveganessays.blogspot.com/2009/02/veganism-as-minimum-standard-of-decency.html