As long as we treat animals well while they're alive (and why wouldn't you, you want high quality low stress organs) then there's really no limit here, morally.
> The heart transplanted into Mr. Bennett came from a genetically altered pig provided by Revivicor, a regenerative medicine company based in Blacksburg, Va.
> The pig had 10 genetic modifications. Four genes were knocked out, or inactivated, including one that encodes a molecule that causes an aggressive human rejection response.
> A growth gene was also inactivated to prevent the pig’s heart from continuing to grow after it was implanted, said Dr. Mohiuddin,who, with Dr. Griffith, did much of the research leading up to the transplant.
> In addition, six human genes were inserted into the genome of the donor pig — modifications designed to make the porcine organs more tolerable to the human immune system.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/10/health/heart-transplant-p...
I mean if you buy a book that's it. You don't get a license to redistribute, but you get an unlimited license to read and use the book for whatever. That's how copyright law works.
It makes more sense to allow a certain portion of your population to die of preventable causes than to make them all happy, as the current net goal is economic productivity, not human happiness. This is demonstrated aptly by the lack of socialised healthcare in much of the world, and where it does exist, the relative paucity of resources provided.
So, while I agree in spirit with what you posit, capitalism and the value axis it brings has to die first.
Aging is a process that affects everyone, the only thing that you can influence a bit is speed thereof.
You see where this is going, right? Oh, what you describe actually might fit the book Brave New World as well.
Anyway yeah I know what you mean, this is why things like education, well-paying low-stress jobs, housing, health care, access to food are so important. They encourage an overall healthy and happy population without imposing on them.
But the US is a bit of a shithole in that regard; low paying jobs, food deserts, financial worries, crippling debts to pay for a lifestyle that people can't afford but need, etc. The country and its policies are self-destructive, and, dare I say it, a kind of economic eugenics - if you're too poor to afford health care you'll be removed from the gene pool.
Yes, a slippery-slope argument that all gene manipulation leads to eugenics.
Here's the counterpoint: The Nazis (and eugenicists / race-scientists in general) used the authority of science, but didn't actually do good science (and slipped in a lot of stuff that was pure ideology); so actual science is automatically different.
We have a really, really, horrible history of treating animals. It's obvious we wouldn't treat them well.
I'm a vegetarian.
Grow me a goddamned lung pig.
[0]https://modernfarmer.com/2016/05/raising-pigs/#:~:text=Most%....
That's as serious of an answer as I can give. It's the same reason I never neutered my cats, since it felt like a mutilation.
My point is - we are not cats, and cats aren't humans. They deserve good treatment, respect and all the love they can get - but at the end of the day they are not humans and should not be treated as such.
Suppose a cat had fingers, and basic language ability. Would you still feel the same way?
Suppose we didn't slaughter the other five proto-human species (Neanderthals et al). Would you still feel the same way?
The line gets blurrier the more you think it over.
It would no longer be a cat.
That's why "If you (a human) were a cat" is a problem, b/c you need to say what level of human/cat this hybrid creature is imagined to be.
It's like that joke: "Behold! The dog with two heads! and two bodies!"
Your earlier comment mentioned morality without qualifiers; here you refer to your own morality; this seems more accurate. Note that there are people who refuse to eat or otherwise harm animals and they cite moral reasons too.
It comes back to the question if never being born at all is better than some (domesticated) life at all.