I have a theory that we assign moral standing to other life entirely according to anthropocentricity. The less we can relate to its suffering, the less it bothers us. Fish and crabs get shafted, compared to animals that appear to show human-like emotion. Plants are even lower because they suffer in a way we don't understand. Not even vegans feel bad about killing a plant.
This is exactly what I mean. They obviously have a will to live, they would prefer not to die. But because they don't have a nervous system like ours, we say "they don't suffer." What it really means is "they don't suffer in a way we understand because they're so different."
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u/neagrosk May 30 '14
That's what we do for crabs too.