Summary
Ethical considerations go beyond personal choices. Personal choices can have social implications, especially when they harm others without their consent. Consuming animal products involves causing harm to animals, making them victims of our decisions.
Context
Places this topic in its larger context.
This objection to animal rights and veganism is made by those who are not aware of the implications of eating animals or by those who are aware but are unwilling to change.
The objection is often accompanied by a statement such as, “I respect your right to be vegan; you should respect my right to not be vegan.”
Key Points
Think of this section as the heart of the briefing.
Personal choices are not necessarily ethical.
Just because it is a choice you personally make does not make it an ethical choice.
- Example: you may choose to be rude to someone because of their gender or color.
The fact that you are not legally restricted from such an action does not imply the action is ethical.
The personal-choice declaration can be and has been used to defend all manner of indefensible positions:
- “It’s my personal choice to own slaves.”
- “It’s my personal choice to pay women less money than men for the same work.”
It’s not just a personal choice.
It is a personal choice in the sense that it’s a choice you can personally make, but for any choice to be only a personal one, all those affected must give consent.
- Example: I may personally choose to cut in front of you in the grocery-store line, but unless I get your permission, it negatively affects you.
If it involves harming others, then it is as much a social choice as it is a personal choice. As the saying goes “Your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins.”
This choice has a victim.
It is inescapable that eating meat and animal secretions (such as milk, cheese, and eggs) harms animals.
When we choose to buy animal products we are not just ignoring the victim—we are complicit in the violence and suffering the victim has endured.
We are complicit because even though we are not inflicting harm directly, we are paying someone else to do so.
Respect for a choice is not the same as respect for a person.
It is difficult if not impossible to respect choices you consider to be unethical.
Just because you do not respect all the choices of someone does not mean you don’t respect the person making those choices.
Awareness changes your perspective.
When you become fully aware of the harms resulting from eating animals or their products, it is impossible to view it as merely a personal choice.
When you take a little time to educate yourself on the atrocities inflicted on animals before they become the food on your plate, you will less likely choose to harm other sentient beings whose lives are as important to them as yours is to you.
Counterclaims
Responses to some “yes but..” retorts.
Claim: We don’t have free will, so we only think we have a choice anyway.
This claim, if used in this context, could be employed to justify absolutely anything.
It undermines the basis for ethical decision-making by suggesting all actions are equally justifiable, ignoring the moral distinctions between them.
Supplementary Info
Additional information that may prove useful.
Pertinent Quotes:
- Humans are experts at rationalizing their choices, as Ben Franklin expressed when he said, “So convenient a thing is it to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.”1
- “The question is not whether eating animals is a personal choice, the question is whether it’s an ethical choice, especially for those that have easy access to alternatives.” —Greg Fuller
Further Study
Outside sources helpful in providing a deeper understanding of the topic.
This Stanford paper discusses the role of choice in the context of free will: Free Will.2
For a more rigorous treatment of moral perspectives on personal choices see The Structure of Moral Revolutions.3
Advocacy Resources
Stuff that can help with outreach and advocacy.
This section provides advocacy resources specifically for this topic, including 0 companion videos, 0 advocacy notes, 14 flash cards, 0 slides, and 0 memes, infographics, or other images.
Advocacy Notes
Tips for Advocacy and Outreach
This is one of the easiest objections to counter. It requires only simple logic.
This objection is usually an implicit admonition to back off.
The author’s experience is Socratic questioning usually results in you interlocutor admitting this objection is invalid.
Socratic questions you can use:
- Can you think of any instances in history where personal choice was use to justify actions we now think of as unethical?
- Do you think the ability to make a choice somehow automatically makes it an ethical choice?
Flash Cards
View Cards
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Who is likely to make the objection to animal rights and veganism mentioned?Those not aware of the implications of eating animals or those aware but unwilling to change.
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What statement often accompanies the objection to veganism?‘I respect your right to be vegan; you should respect my right to not be vegan.’
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Why are personal choices not necessarily ethical?Just because it is a choice you personally make does not automatically make it an ethical choice.
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What an example of a choice that does not make it ethical?Choosing to be rude to someone because of their gender or race.
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Why does the absence of legal restrictions not imply that an action is ethical?Legal permissibility does not automatically confer ethical justification on an action.
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Give an example of an indefensible position defended as a ‘personal choice’.‘It’s my personal choice to own slaves.’ or ‘It’s my personal choice to pay women less money than men for the same work.’
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Give an example of a choice that affects others without their consent.Choosing to cut in front of someone in the grocery-store line without their permission.
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What determines whether a choice is as much a social choice as it is a personal choice?If it involves harming others.
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Why is the saying ‘Your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins’ relevant to personal choices?It illustrates that personal freedoms are constrained by their impact on others.
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Why does buying or eating animal products make one complicit in violence against animals?Because it involves financially supporting and endorsing the harm inflicted on animals.
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Explain why respect for a choice is not the same as respect for a person.You can disrespect someone’s choices while still respecting the person making those choices because respect for a person does not require agreement with all their choices.
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How could awareness of the harms caused by eating animals or their products change one’s perspective?It makes it impossible to view it as merely a personal choice.
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What effect does educating oneself on the atrocities inflicted on animals before they become food have on one’s choices?It discourages harming other sentient beings whose lives are as important to them as ours are to us.
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Why can’t the claim that we don’t have free will and only think we have a choice be used to justify ethical actions?Because it undermines the basis for ethical decision-making by suggesting all actions are equally justifiable, ignoring the moral distinctions between them.
Presentation Slides
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Feel free to mix slides from several briefings to create a custom presentation.
Speaker notes are included in the slides and can be used as a starting script.
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PowerPoint Slides for this topic.
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Metrics and Meta
Counts and other information about this briefing.
Briefing Metrics and Other Meta
Metrics
| Companion Videos | 0 |
| Key Points | 5 |
| Counterclaims | 1 |
| Advocacy Notes | 0 |
| Flash Cards | 14 |
| Memes and Infographics | 0 |
| Presentation Slides | 0 |
| Footnotes | 3 |
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Footnotes
Our sources, with links back to where they’re used.
- Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Amazon Classics, 2017. 48-49. ↩︎
- O’Connor, Timothy, and Christopher Franklin. “Free Will (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).” Stanford.edu, 2022, plato.stanford.edu/entries/freewill/. Accessed 7 Mar. 2024. ↩︎
- Baker, Robert. The Structure of Moral Revolutions. The MIT Press EBooks, The MIT Press, 1 Jan. 2019, direct.mit.edu/books/monograph/4568/The-Structure-of-Moral-RevolutionsStudies-of. Accessed 7 Mar. 2024. ↩︎
