Do you think a species as a unit has preferences? It seems like your friends are conflating genetics and utilitarian ethics. There's a way of explaining geneti

Do you think a species as a unit has preferences? It seems like your friends are conflating genetics and utilitarian ethics. There's a way of explaining genetics in terms of preferences, but genes don't really have preferences. Species, by extension, don't have preferences. Cows as a species want nothing. Individual cows do. So personally, as a vegan, I wouldn't see the death of the last cow on earth as a huge loss, as long as the cow was safe, happy, and comfortable.