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Arthur, confronted with a bovine creature that apparently wants to be eaten in Milliways (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, chapter 17), faces a moral dilemma. Should he eat it or shouldn't he? And what considerations might justify his refusal to do so? It seems, from the fact that he was willing to contemplate eating it, before it expressed its apparent consent, that he is an omnivore, who has either never seriously considered the ethical case for vegetarianism or who has done so but decided against it. It is strange, then, that he should show qualms about eating an animal that wants to be eaten and gives him not only permission but encouragement. As Zaphod observes, in one of his occasional moments of astuteness, this seems at first sight far less morally troubling than eating an animal that doesn't want to be eaten.

DOI: 10.1007/978-0-230-39265-6_2

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