Carving up roast animals: What do you think?

Read the following introduction to "Carving the Roast Beast", a sixteen page essay and dialogue by Stephen Law.

Every year in the UK, more than 25 million turkeys are killed for our Christmas dinner. Is this mass slaughter justifiable merely to satisfy our preference for a certain kind of meat? Shouldn't we be carving nut cutlets instead?

The Wilson family are sat around the Christmas dinner table. Dad is carving the turkey when he glances a little apprehensively at his eldest daughter, Gemma.

Mr. Wilson: Some turkey, Gemma?

Gemma: Of course not. You know I'm a vegetarian.

Mrs Wilson: Only since last week. And it's Christmas. Can't you join in just this once?

Gemma: No. It's morally wrong to eat meat. I'm not going to do something morally wrong just to make you happy.

Much the same conversation will be familiar to parents around the world. Teenagers are increasingly becoming vegetarians, often on moral grounds. It can be irksome for the parents: special meals have to be cooked and time and effort put into making sure that their offspring get a balanced diet.

Still, while Gemma's views might be inconvenient, that doesn't make them mistaken. And in fact Gemma does have some rather good arguments up her sleeve. (Law, 2003, pp. 124 - 5)

Now, in a comment below, write your response to the topic and main idea of Law's sixteen page essay. Although I've asked you to respond to Law's topic and main idea, this is a response writing, so we can be pretty flexible. The important thing is to respond to the reading in sentences that clearly state your ideas.

I suggest you write for five to ten minutes without stopping, and then publish your comment.

You can also respond to a classmate's comments if you thought it was interesting. You might think it was interesting because you agree or because you disagree with your classmate, or for any other reason.

You can leave as many comments as you like.

You do not have the next fifteen pages of Law's essay: that is not a problem. Don't worry: I'll give you the full essay tomorrow, after everyone has written their response to the introduction above.

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References

Law, S. (2003). Carving the roast beast. In The Xmas Files: The Philosophy of Christmas (pp. 124 - 140). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.