The ethical considerations

The ethical considerations on food choices is a topic that is characterized with intense debate. The major considerations that lead to the debate are any health or environmental implications as well as the sustainability of the food source. An oft overlooked item that merits addition to the list, especially with regards to animals, is how humane the food production process is. Human beings should show more compassion in the preparation of animal food sources. In the article “Consider the Lobster,” author David Foster Wallace presents just such an argument when he asks about our feelings on “the (possible) moral status and (probable) suffering of the animals involved.” On the question of morality, the Dalai Lama, in his article “Ethics and the New Genetics” talks of the value of morals and the measure of a man as being subject to their “basic, innate capacity for compassion.” One cannot separate moral and ethical considerations in the food production process in the case of lobsters or animal food sources in general. The considerations of the food (lobster) preparation process point to it being one without due moral and ethical considerations and as such should be avoided.

The lobsters feel pain and suffer. Most animal rights campaigners and ethicists identify two main criteria for use in the determination of whether a living creature can suffer. Wallace recognizes as much when he notes that “One is how much of the neurological hardware required for pain-experience the animal comes equipped with—nociceptors, prostaglandins, neuronal opioid receptors, etc. The other criterion is whether the animal demonstrates behavior associated with pain” (503). While Wallace contends that the nervous system of a lobsters is not as advanced as a humans’, lobsters are nonetheless highly sensitive creatures that can detect even the slightest increases in temperatures. Incremental changes in temperature have been known to determine their migration patterns. Moreover, the frantic scrabbling that comes from the pot once the lobster has been dipped into boiling water is a clear indication of pain and suffering. To further strengthen his point, Wallace points to the scrabbling as a sign of preference, which he believes to be a significant indicator of pain and distress. From this, it is a reasonable conclusion that lobsters are indeed capable of experiencing pain. The undue infliction of pain to a sentient creature, even for gustatory pleasure, is a something to avoid at all costs. The Dalai Lama encourages a willingness to be revolted by any human activity that crosses the boundaries of human decency and calls on us to fight to retain our sensitivity since it can be so easily eroded. He presents that condoning the needless suffering of sentient beings is only likely to get worse. The Dalai Lama states that “The basic principle is that the earlier one intervenes in the causal process, the more effective is one’s prevention of undesirable consequences” (138). In his view, ensuring that compassion rules all our endeavors is key.

The ‘preparation’ process makes us uncomfortable. Human beings have over time developed a well-defined sensitivity or aversion to pain and suffering, even in other forms of life. Some might argue that it is wired into our very nature to behave in that way. The fact that most people who cook lobster are uncomfortable with the process points to this truth. Wallace points to this when he makes the observation “A blunter way to say this is that the lobster acts as if it’s in terrible pain, causing some cooks to leave the kitchen altogether and to take one of those little lightweight plastic oven-timers with them into another room and wait until the whole process is over” (506). Evidently, even the cooks are more than a little concerned about the lobsters. Attendants of the Maine Lobster Festival cite their discomfort with there being “are all these ex-flower children coming up and down along the line handing out pamphlets that say the lobsters die in terrible pain and you shouldn’t eat them” (503). The primary reason for this discomfiture, I believe, is that lobsters get boiled alive. The Dalai Lama identifies disconcerting emotions as a humanist meter that is telling of the ethical appropriateness of a situation. He states that “Some people might feel this is an irrational emotional reaction that need not be taken seriously.  But I believe we must trust our instinctive feelings of revulsion, as these arise out of our basic humanity” (139). He further points to the need to gauge the direction of our thoughts and actions, and recognizing the preciousness of life.

The fact that lobsters are quite similar to us makes it an ethical dilemma. Most proponents of the lobster preparation process justify themselves with the fact that lobsters are unlike man or other large mammals, unable to feel anything. The proponents advance that lobsters are not sentient creatures, and as such we should exercise no due consideration in their preparation as a food source. Wallace notes the contribution of the Maine Lobster Promotion Council on the issue, “The nervous system of a lobster is very simple, and is in fact most similar to the nervous system of the grasshopper. It is decentralized with no brain. There is no cerebral cortex, which in humans is the area of the brain that gives the experience of pain” (504). What is most disconcerting about this statement is that pain is a completely subjective experience, and have no way to directly access to any other being’s pain except our own. Even more disturbing is that people believe lobsters cannot feel pain. Dick, from the article, categorically states that the part of the human and animal brain responsible for pain perception is absent in lobsters. The Dalai Lama credits new found knowledge as having given him the insight on our basic kinship with all animal forms based on the shared genome. To him, “It is conceivable if we humans utilize our newly found (genetic) knowledge skillfully, it could help foster a greater sense of affinity and unity not only with our fellow human beings but with life as a whole” (139). The Dalai Lama recognizes the benefits and capability for developing a healthy environmental consciousness such a perspective could reinforce.

To conclude, the food preparation method in the preparation of lobster, as it stands, presents grave moral and ethical considerations. The lobsters are subjected to pain and an inhumane method, citing their inability to perceive pain. Lobsters on further examination are found to be very similar to man and other higher mammals, so owing to the inhumanity of the preparation process, the method should be reviewed. In general, the lesson contained in the articles points to a greater awareness on the kinds of foods we consume, paying special consideration to how ethical the processes are.