¶ … Vegetarian I would like to begin with a thought experiment, which I take from the dieticians and vegetarian activists Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, and their best seller Fit for Life. The Diamonds are faced with the prejudice which considers vegetarianism to be "unnatural" and they offer the following to investigate what, precisely, our notions of a "natural" diet entail:

…We as humans are not even psychologically equipped to eat meat. Have you ever strolled through a lush wooded area, filling your lungs with good air while listening to birds sing? Perhaps it was after a rain, and everything was fresh and clean….Just then perhaps a chipmunk scurried across your path. What was your VERY FIRST INSTINCTIVE inclination upon the sight of the chipmunk, before you even had time to think? To pounce on it, grab it with your teeth, rip it apart,...

Place a small child in a crib with a rabbit and an apple. If the child eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, I'll buy you a new car. (Diamond and Diamond, 98).
I hope to argue that both biologically and ethically, vegetarianism is the best possible choice in diet. Through an examination of earlier sources, I will show that vegetarianism is a lifestyle with a long history and a coherent rationale, which readers should find persuasive.

The ethical arguments for vegetarianism are well-known. The central ethical principle asks us to regard animals and not consider whether or not they can think, but whether or not they can suffer. A cow may not read Tolstoy, but it can feel pain. To ignore this pain is to coarsen one's own capacity for responding to the suffering…