where to draw the line

[Martha Rosett Lutz]

Joseph Sugar asked:

" I sure hope you don't teach your children that it is
all right to murder innocent butterflies.  If you do, then how do you teach
them where to draw the line?  Hmmm?"


Can we draw the line at organisms that cause pathology?  How can we justify
KILLING innocent bacteria (they're only trying to make a living, after all)
purely because they cause things like TB or pneumonia?  Can we draw the
line at viruses: polio and HIV?

I hope it is obvious that we definitely do not condone murder.  Nor
torture.  Humans, dogs, monkeys, probably lizards and birds--all these
kinds of organisms have sufficient nervous tissue to perceive pain.  Having
seen the brain and entire CNS of several different species of insects, I
feel safe concluding that they do not have the neurological capacity to
perceive what we would define as pain, nor do they suffer in any way that
we would perceive as suffering.  Plus, if we are horrified at the 'murder'
or torture of butterflies, we had better be equally horrified at the
killing of cockroaches, flies (including biting flies that are disease
vectors), and insect pests that compete with us for our food and fiber.

The "Where do we draw the line" argument is pure sophistry, intended to
sound righteous while diverting the listener (or reader) from specious
'logic.'

Anyone with maturity and common sense (that most uncommon trait) knows
where to draw the line, and knows how to teach our children empathy and
kindness without side-stepping the teaching of logic and scientific
reasoning.

In Stride,
Martha Rosett Lutz

a.k.a. the old lady sprinter in Iowa AND Dr. Lutz, come 17 May 2002 . . .



 
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