So if in a year from now a treatment is developed to prevent , say , atherosclerosis with certainty , you ' re telling me you ' re not going to receive it ? I don ' t understand your attitude . Surely you ' d not rather suffer ill health and death than continuing to live because you might have to pay bills . <| sep |> By the logic in this video , it seems equally true that it is immoral to kill a plant for food . I would suggest that the intelligence part of this argument is vastly over simplified , as that would make the best case for it being morally permissible to kill some kale . As well , we do have moral arguments for why it is okay to kill somebody of a particularly low intelligence , that being people on life support with an intelligence so low that they have effectively no brain function . It is still impermissible to eat that person , but not necessarily to kill them by unplugging a machine . This would imply that intelligence is the answer , and it suggests that the answer to the question is it ok to kill animals for food ? would be , yes , sometimes , followed by the creation of a spectrum of animals leading to a point where it is . Perhaps a pig is a great example of an animal we should not eat , but certain animals , like oysters , are of sufficiently low intelligence or sentience that they can be eaten . Edit I know the ethics of removing someone from life support is debated , I am simply drawing the comparison , because it is another ethical dilemma , where people argue that it is ethical to kill a human , who would do you no harm , based on intelligence .