Poor people have been paid in some countries like India to donate some of their own organs to some wealthy person while they were still alive...the removal of a kidney, for example. This is a way that the rich can profit from endemic poverty!

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Now...to argue about whether or not people are animals is a bit pointless, I think. "Animal" is simply a mental concept that WE human beings invented. So is "human being". Another mental concept. A label. But people and animals are all living beings. They share that in common, and that's what counts. If one living being has a soul (which is a debatable concept for some), then all living beings must have a soul as far as I'm concerned. Living beings all feel pain when they are hurt. Like death, pain is a great equalizer.

We should not inflict on other living beings what we would not wish inflicted upon ourselves.

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Given that, we should all stop eating meat. But that's a whole other debate, and it's an ideal I do sympathize with, but I have not yet managed to live up to (although I've gone through fairly lengthy periods of being vegetarian from time to time).

The main thing that keeps most people happily eating meat is simply this: It's convenient. They're accustomed to it. They've grown to like it. They do not have to face the bloody slaughter that goes on in our meat-producing industries. Someone else does that for them. If they did have to face it, most would be too sickened to bear it. I knew 2 Native American guys, avid meateaters, who got jobs in one of the Toronto meatpacking companies. It only took a couple of weeks on that job...what they saw at work sickened them so much that they were never able to stomach meat again, and they both became vegetarians as a result.

I haven't had their experience, so I still eat meat quite frequently and without hesitation, but I know I could manage just fine without it...and I have done so, from time to time. You either decide to stop doing it or you don't. Kind of the same as drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes or indulging in any mood-altering drug.

It's entirely up to you.