I had a fruit fly problem over the summer and felt guilty about the cruelty of the glue traps. But when it comes to mosquitos, roaches, and wasps, I'm Hitler. I would favor genetic alterations that expanded their capacity for suffering.
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"Sheen, this is the 7th week in a row you've shown CRISPR modifications to the mosquito genome to curb malaria in class"
Comments are all the same as when they made mosquitos infertile, unable to spread malaria or wingless too.
Do vegans support this because it prevents mosquitoes from consuming animal flesh, or do they oppose it because it denies the mosquitoes their nature?
It's nuanced because it could reduce suffering overall, but it could also disrupt ecosystems in ways we can't predict and cause even more suffering. I think the latter is more likely. People have a tendency to paint animals they don't like as insignificant to the ecosystem, but they're nearly always incorrect. Wasps, for instance, are important pollinators, even if they do sting, and mosquitoes are an important food source, even if they are deadly. Anyone who advocates for eradicating species like these is doing so through a biased lens. We are nowhere near the point, technologically or scientifically, that we'd be safe playing god with the natural world like this -- especially not with the massive damage we've already caused to the environment. Someday? Maybe. But not right now.
I do also find it horrific to forcibly alter a mosquito's body so she can't express her natural behaviors. After all -- mosquitoes may cause harm, but they lack the capacity for moral reasoning, and thus cannot be evil. Thus, they don't "deserve" any kind of torment. But my personal discomfort with this isn't a moral argument.
So, uh, that's my take on it as a vegan.
Cleanse the followers of Nurgle!
It's a nice idea. But I wonder what the long term ramifications might be. What ripple effects might happen that we can't see today that end up being problems in the future.
Human history is littered with such problems.