Several years ago, I made an ethically based decision to become a
                   vegetarian. I gradually reduced my dietary intake of meat until it was
                   substituted. Becoming further interested in the topic of animal rights,
                   nutrition in vegetarianism, and animal abuse and neglect, I volunteered at
                   an animal rights society. As in any belief system which involves morals, I
                   found that others had varying views, degrees, and convictions, all within
                   the animal rights topic.

                   Coincidentally, I was taking a Civil Liberties course in school. As one of
                   two Democrats in my class, I was the only student with interest in the
                   issue of compassion for animals. I never brought it up, because I prefer to
                   live by example instead of evangelism. Unless there was mistreatment of
                   an animal or talk of such, I did not speak up. One day, that changed.

                   We were discussing the legal ramifications of abortion. I have always
                   thought of abortion as wrong, and as something to be avoided if possible.
                   I consider something to be a life form if it has a central nervous system:
                   the ability to feel pain. If the fetus is this developed at the abortion
                   stage, I feel that it is wrong to abort the baby. Similarly, unfertilized eggs
                   are part of my diet because they also do not feel pain. I do not believe
                   that God “meant life to be;” I simply believe that we are all connected in
                   an earthly cycle (by an undefined source greater than ourselves and
                   symbolized by Nature) in which we decide for ourselves and make our own
                   fate to the greatest extent. However, the more I thought about it, the
                   more I realized that this was my feeling about it; not necessarily that of
                   others.

                   It would not be right for me to dictate whether or not others were
                   allowed to eat meat, just as it would be wrong for them to force me to
                   eat it. I assumed that many of my comrades in the animal rights pool
                   might feel the same; I was wrong.

                   “Wrong is wrong,” one woman told me, “It is always wrong to take a life.”
                   I also noted that she was one of the most politically active liberals that I
                   had ever encountered. She got very upset when I suggested that it might
                   be wrong to dictate that choice for others, be it about animals or
                   abortion.

                   I focused again on animal rights: within the issue of choice, then, it would
                   be wrong to throw traditionally red paint someone’s fur coat, but right to
                   ideologically protest their wearing of it. The resulting property damage
                   takes away their choice, but canceling the right to protest takes away
                   not only a fundamental American right, but an opinion
                   voiced.

                   Straightening out my views on both topics made me realize that there is a
                   direct ethical correlation between the two seemingly different subjects. I
                   have grown as a supporter of pro-choice, and a believer in animal rights
                   because of this epiphany.

                   I spoke out.

Writing Main

All writing is copyright its author, 2002.