The Cruelty of Veganism

“One who shows compassion on the cruel, will ultimately show cruelty to the compassionate.”  “He who is merciful at a time when he should be cruel, is destined to be cruel at a time when he should be merciful.”-The Talmud (Kohelet Raba, 7:16)

Vegan parents guilty in infant murder:

The parents of a baby that died of starvation after being fed a vegan diet have been found guilty of malice murder, felony murder and first degree cruelty to children.Jade Sanders, 27, and Lamont Thomas, 31, will get an automatic life sentence for the death of their 6-week-old infant, Crown. After being fed a diet largely consisting of soy milk and apple juice, he weighed only 3 1/2 pounds when he died.

The Fulton County jury deliberated the case for about seven hours.Prosecutors said it was a chilling case of murder by starvation, a painful and prolonged death. Attorneys representing Sanders and Thomas told jurors the first-time parents did the best they could while adhering to their vegan lifestyle. Vegans typically live free of animal products.”They’re not vegans, they’re baby killers,” Fulton prosecutor Mike Carlson told the jury Tuesday during his closing arguments.The couple’s attorneys said they didn’t realize their baby, born at home, was in danger until minutes before he died.

Values sometimes clash.  You can value both liberty and equality, but you cannot value both to the same degree (liberty will result in some inequality, and forced equality will limit someones liberty).  You can value compassion and abhore cruelty (and you should), but you should not be compassionate in all contexts.  Compassion for animals can mean cruelty for humans.  In this case compassion for the cow meant starvation for a baby.