The Pros And Cons Of Utilitarianism

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In recent times a lot of people have been converting from carnivorous diets to diets of vegetarianism and veganism, arguing in favour of animal rights. Many people are becoming opposed to consuming meat because of how cruel the process of “factory farming” and mass fishing has become and been revealed to be. Animals are fed growth hormones so to be more easily mass produced, are kept in indecent conditions; small, over-packed confined cages surrounded by their own feces, and beaten. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that states that an action is only morally right if it benefits the greatest number of beings with the greatest good. Essentially stating that the most morally right action will be the one that gives most pleasure or least suffering to the majority involved. Utilitarian’s like Peter Singer believe that eating animals is immoral because “Animals have interests…When these are similar to ours, or their pain is on a similar level, why give them less consideration?” (Schacter.) This ethical theory can be used to condemn acts like animal cruelty because within utilitarianism we determine what is right by calculating the amount of…show more content…
The greater good should not be just for the concerns of humans but should also before nonhuman creatures as well. Nobody deserves to suffer for the “greater good” of human beings. As stated throughout this entire paper, the entire point of the utilitarian theory is that in order for any action taken to be considered ethically correct is that this action must benefit the greater number of beings and cause the highest amount of happiness by the parties involved. There can be more humane ways found to test medicine and makeup products as well as better, less harmful ways to find nutrition and protein besides slaughtering thousands of innocent animals who are tortured and mistreated heavily before their eventual
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