The Plant That Doesn't Want To Be Eaten - Thought Experiment
| Philosophy : Thought Experiments "I think this would change the mind of those who think it is morally preferable to eat plants to animals", Simon declared, and everyone round the table nodded in agreement. You see some scientists had done some clever genetic engineering on plants to make them grow stronger and fuller of nutrients than ever before. The quite unforeseen side effect was that some of these super plants now appeared to wince or groan in pain when they were picked or eaten - that is, when they were killed. In fact it was even alleged (though no-one was quite sure if this was truth or apocrophy) that one particular spring marrow was so advanced it actually spoke out protesting it wanted to live and not be eaten when it was picked. At the same time, scientists had breeded a new set of animals that positively wanted to be eaten - well, most of them were meat eaters and wanted to get around increasingly prevalent moral objections to eating meat. But now things were rather difficult. Could one now eat either meat or veg? The alternative was to starve! If plants didn't want to be eaten, could we ever look a carrot in the face again? And if animals didn't mind, well, surely that was now fair game?
 Questions about thought experiment:
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