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Richard Littledale

Richard Littledale's
Views on the News: June 2000

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Only eating vegetarians

In the early 1970s, Roger McGough coined his amusing phrase describing capitalists being humanitarian as "like cannibals on a health kick, only eating vegetarians." Today the conscientious cannibal would not only select his vegetarian carefully, but insist on knowing his dietary history. Had he been allowed to roam freely, foraging at will, or kept in battery conditions? Had he consumed a balanced diet, including a healthy amount of bugs, and a mix of home- cooked and ready-made food? Most of all, our cannibal would wish to know whether his tasty morsel had been fed on GM food, knowingly or otherwise. Perhaps only the tagging of said vegetarian from birth could ensure our cannibal's peace of mind.

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This lighthearted diversion is hardly more laughable than the current farcical banter on the issue. What began as a scientific debate now has all the makings of a major royal soap opera. A discussion which might once have been conducted peacefully within the scientific community has spilled over into the realm of the ignorant and the semi-informed, with harmful consequences. Not even God has escaped, for some would claim that he resents our intervention into the botanical world.

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My scientific armour is too scant to enter the lists on either side. However, it would seem that the God who gave us our intellect also expects us to use it. Furthermore, our "higher" intellect carries with it an equally elevated moral expectation. If ethical debate does not keep pace with scientific research we become merely clever monsters. Some of this principle is enshrined in Jesus' phrase that "from him to whom much is given, much will be demanded".

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On a moral health kick we should not only pause before selecting our vegetarian, but ask whose he is, whether he is available for consumption, and whether there is enough of him to go round!

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