Drawing a Line: Strictness and Consistency in the Dietary Habits of Ethically Motivated Vegetarians

Drawing a Line: Strictness and Consistency in the Dietary Habits of Ethically Motivated Vegetarians Abstract the degree of strictness with which vegetarians maintain their diet often seems difficult to understand, especially in the case of vegetarianism motivated by ethical concerns. Refusal of food containing meat when offered by a host, avoidance of such things as gelatin and rennet, and so on, cannot have a ny effect upon the slaughter of animals. On the other hand the use of leather for shoes by most vegetarians seems inconsistent with such avoidances. This article report's findings from a study using in - depth interviews with vegetarians variously motivated by ethical as well as health and other concerns which explores these apparent inconsistencies and helps to explain them. Ethical vegetarianism, like most ethical stances, is difficult to follow fully in all its implications and consequences. A line has to be drawn beyond which vegetarians feel they ought to not reasonably be expected to go. This line is roughly drawn between ingestion of animal products and external use of them, firstly because this provides a clear and logical divide, and secondly because it is in any case associated with emotions of disgust and repugnance in relations to meat which typically develops in most ethically motivated vegetarians.