All Lives Matter — Human or Animal, Born or Foetal (Part III). By Dr Chapman Chen
- Chapman Chen
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
1. Both Human Foetuses and Animals are the Most Vulnerable
Both pre-born children and animals are living beings that can or potentially can feel pain and joy. Both are degraded as irrational objects or things to which humans can do whatever they fancy. Both are vulnerable and at the mercy of human adults. Human foetuses may be in an even more disadvantaged position than animals because foetuses are trapped in their mother’s womb and have nowhere else to escape to, whereas animals can move. There have been news reports of pigs or cows jumping off a truck on its way to the slaughterhouse. Nonetheless, human foetuses are human babies after all. Most human parents still deeply treasure and love their own offspring whilst totally disregarding the well-being of other animals’ offspring. There is a PRC saying, “Others’ kids cannot die enough!”
2. Universalised Compassion
Non-vegan conservative pro-lifers have only compassion for humans, including born and unborn, but none for animals. Many atheist pro-abortion vegans have only compassion for animals, but none for pre-born humans. Our stance is a third way. All sentient and potentially sentient lives matter. Our ethical basis is as follows: “God is love” (1 John 4:8). God loves the world (John 3:16), including ALL His creation (Psalm 145:9) ; Christ is compassion (Matthew 9:13, 12:7; cf. Hosea 6:6).
2.1. Thou Shalt Not Kill!
“Thou shalt not kill!” commands God (Exodus 20:13 KJV). “Lo tirtzach” refers to the killing of any sentient beings, per the great Hebrew-English scholar Reuben Alcalay (Alcalay 1981, Rosen 2004:87). Note that this command has no object. The commandment therefore covers animals as well as humans, since “He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man...” (Isaiah 66:3), and “The righteous care for the needs of their animals” (Proverbs 12:10).
It also covers babies in the womb. According to the Bible, life begins in the womb: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5); “You knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalms 139:13).
2.1. Protection for Pregnant Women
Scripture states that pregnant women deserve special protection:- “If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth...” (Exodus 21:22-25).
2.2. We are All Co-creatures
Both humans, whether born or unborn, and animals are co-creatures and therefore brothers and sisters (Colin Gunton 1998, pp. 71-2). When the Logos becomes flesh, the boundary between humans and animals — and even between Creator and creation — becomes blurred, because both humans and animals are made of flesh (cf. Andrew Linzey 1998). In fact, according to Buddha, all sentient beings are equal. No doubt, humans and other animals are different in many aspects, but differences do not justify domination and abuse.
3. Do Plant Lives Matter?
Plant lives do matter but to a lesser extent than human and animal lives. For plants are neither sentient nor potentially sentient. And most crops are fed to animals in factory farms, not to humans.
Is there a moral difference between chopping the head off a broccoli and cutting the head off a pig? Absolutely. They are two completely different things, because we understand that animals are sentient. They have a conscious experience of life; they have a central nervous system—plants don’t.
Plants are known to respond to changes in their environment, such as changes in light intensity or the presence of predators, but this is not the same as experiencing pain. Additionally, plants have the ability to communicate with other plants and other organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, but this does not imply that they experience pain. Plants do not react to injury in the same way as animals do. When an animal is hurt, it usually displays signs of pain such as vocalisation, flinching, or attempting to escape, but plants do not show these types of responses when they are injured. Many plants can be harvested without killing the entire organism, while animals are killed for their meat.
And even if you believe that eating plants is somehow harmful, a vegan diet still uses far fewer plants overall. Think about it: every animal you eat had to consume massive amounts of plants throughout their life just to grow big enough to be killed. By skipping the animal and going straight to plants, we dramatically reduce the number of plants harvested to produce the same amount of food energy.
4. Conclusion
In our theological framework, both pre-born children and animals are creatures of God. Both abortion and meatism (incl. dairy and egg industries) are anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-love, anti-life, anti-vegan, and/or anti-humanity, anti-reproduction, anti-care, and anti-femininity.
Put down your evil knives; follow the Vegan Christ! Go vegan and stop at least 99.5% of abortions every year!
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