1. The
Moral Hand
Stijn Bruers, IARC 2013

2. The thumb: rule universalism
You must follow the rules that everyone (who is capable, rational and informed) must follow in all morally similar situations. You may follow only the rules that everyone (who is capable, rational and informed) may follow in all morally similar situations. Prejudicial discrimination is immoral. We should give the good example, even if others don’t.

3. The forefinger: justice and the value of lifetime well-being
Increase the well-being (over a complete life) of all sentient beings alive in the present and the future, whereby improvements of the worst-off positions (the worst sufferers, the beings who have the worst lives) have a strong priority. Lifetime well-being is the value you would ascribe when you would live the complete life of a sentient being, and is a function of all positive (and negative) feelings that are the result of (dis)satisfaction of preferences: of everything (not) wanted by the being.

4. The middle finger: the mere means principle and the basic right to bodily autonomy.
Never use the body of a sentient being as merely a means to someone else’s ends, because that violates the right to bodily autonomy. The two words “mere means” refer to two conditions, respectively:
if in order to reach an end (e.g. saving someone) you force a sentient being to do or undergo something that the being does not want, and
if the body of that sentient being is necessary as a means for that end,
then you are not allowed to treat that being in that way.

5. The ring finger: naturalness and the value of biodiversity.
If a behavior violates the forefinger or middle finger principles, the behavior is still allowed (but not obligatory) only if that behavior is both natural (a direct consequence of spontaneous evolution), normal (frequent) and necessary (important for the survival of sentient beings). Just as lifetime well-being is the value of a sentient being, biodiversity is the value of an ecosystem and is a function of the variation of life forms and processes that are a direct consequence of natural evolution.

6. The little finger: tolerated partiality and the value of personal relationship
When helping others, you are allowed to be a bit partial in favor of your loved ones, as long as you are prepared to tolerate similar levels of partiality of everyone else.

7. Principles of equality
The thumb: the formal principle of impartiality and antidiscrimination. We should treat all equals equally in all equal situations. We should not look at arbitrary characteristics linked to individuals. This is a formal principle, because it does not say how we should treat someone.

8. Principles of equality
The forefinger: prioritarian equality of lifetime well-being (the principle of priority for the worst-off). If total lifetime well-being is constant between different situations, then the situation which has the most equal distribution of well-being is the best.

9. Principles of equality
The middle finger: basic right equality. All sentient beings (with equal levels of morally relevant mental capacities for well-being) get an equal claim to the basic right not to be used as merely a means to someone else’s ends.

10. Principles of equality
The ring finger: naturalistic behavioral fairness. All natural beings (who contribute equally to biodiversity) have an equal right to a behavior that is both natural, normal and necessary (i.e. a behavior that contributes to biodiversity). Natural beings are beings evolved by evolution. E.g. if a prey is allowed to eat in order to survive, a predator is allowed to do so as well (even if it means eating the prey).

11. Principles of equality
The little finger: tolerated choice equality. Everyone is allowed to be partial to an equal degree that we can tolerate. If you choose to help individual X instead of individual Y, and if you tolerate that someone else would choose to help Y instead of X, then X and Y have a tolerated choice equality (even if X is emotionally more important for you than Y).

12. Application to AR
The forefinger: compared to humans, livestock animals are in the worst-off position due to suffering and early death. The loss of lifetime well-being of the livestock animals is worse than the loss of well-being that humans would experience when they are no longer allowed to consume animal products. Livestock and fisheries violate the forefinger principle of well-being.

13. Application to AR
The middle finger: the consumption of animal products almost always involves the use of animals as merely a means, hence violating the mere means principle of the middle finger.

14. Application to AR
The ring finger: animal products are not necessary for humans, because well-planned vegan diets are not unhealthy (according to the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics, ADA, 2009). Biodiversity will not decrease when we would stop consuming animal products. Hence, the value of biodiversity cannot be invoked to justify the consumption of animal products.

15. Application to AR
The little finger: we would never tolerate the degree of partiality that is required to justify livestock farming and fishing. Hence, tolerated partiality cannot be invoked to justify the consumption of animal products.

16. Application to AR
The thumb: give the good example, even when other people continue consuming animal products.