I have some questions for vegetarians
1. What is your opinion of using products, any products, whose safety and efficacy for human consumption has been determined through animal experimentation. Do you use any product which has been tested on animals? If yes, what are your moral justifications for doing so?
I sort of have a don't ask don't tell policy here. I don't research every product I use, so how would I know? Do they test the road salt they de-ice the roads in the winter on the squirrels that cross them to see if it causes them cancer? I have no idea. If it did, I'm not going to stop driving.
But then, if you read my posts, I'm mostly against ingesting the animal. . . other humans are going to cause animals pain for the benefit of my society, and I am going to use that society for my gain. . . yeah. I just don't want that toxic animal DNA in MY body.
2. Do you have any pets? What is your position on keeping pets in the home? Would you keep a human child as a pet?
Nope, no pets. I might make friends with an animal again if it came to me, but I will never "imprison a pet."
3. If you were to find that using a vegetarian product may be harmful for your child and for health reasons you needed to use a product of animal origin, what choice would you make? Why?
I have greatly decreased my use of textured soy protein. It is not the healthiest stuff in the world. I only use it about twice a month now. It's still healthier than say. . . ground beef, MSP, or MS Pork, but still, it's not the healthiest. But, my child is not a vegetarian. I believe children (or at least my child), should not be. The human brain and nervous system needs to be awash in protein while it's developing. I was raised in an omnivorous home. So he would not be very intelligent if he had to rely on my vegetarian cooking skills to make sure he got enough protein.
4. I've read research on soy formula which asserts that the level of isoflavones in it is equivalent to giving five birth control pills to a child every day. Given that we know so little about food components, what is your position about imposing your food beliefs on your child?
My son was breast fed, which is best, and then on a formula that was best met his needs. I think people should do what is proven healthiest for their children of course. I would never base my conclusions on one study of course. . . . I've heard some not so good things about high concentrations of soy though. It makes me wonder if this is natural soy, or GMO soy.
4b. If your child wanted to eat any food of animal origin, what would be your response?
Not an issue, see 3. above.
5. If you were offered a choice between two life saving treatments, one which had been tested on animals and one which had been tested only on yeast, which would you choose, given that you could only choose one? Why?
That scenario sounds so fanciful. lol I guess I'd ask the doctor's and surgeon's what one they recommend and I would go with their expert guided opinion. Who am I? That's not my area of expertise.
6. If research showed that plants feel pain on being eaten alive, would it affect your position on vegetarianism?
They don't. They do however feel YOUR pain. Let's say, you are eating a salad. If you are a happy person, that salad is grateful to be your meal, it is united it's energy with you as one, for a good cause, the beneficence of keeping a good organism, a good thing energized.
But if you are negative, always sad, ornery, etc. It senses that before you take the first bite. In a way, the water molecules, the DNA of the plant, the vibe of it. . . It picks up on that, and it's united consciousness reaction is a sort of. . . . "oh shit" and no, it doesn't really appreciate being eaten by you if you are having a bad day. Go have a burger instead, it's already completely dead.
A friend of mine (he's a hard core carnivore) and I were talking about the whole dimensional consciousness thing and eating animals, which ones are most "here," sentient, whatever. He told me that he thinks that even though plants aren't, that as "groups" he feels that they just might be. And if you have ever been in a field of corn, or deep in a forest hiking, or by a circle of mushrooms, in a field of daisies, or a coral reef. . . you might know what I am talking about. It's a way different level of consciousness than animal consciousness. But then, plants ARE way different. So to these vegetarians flippantly writing off the vegetable matter they eat. . . be aware of it's sacredness every bit as much as the meat eater treats the animal with a sacredness befitting it's station in this world.