Just now, during our scripture reading, I heard some buzzing. Apparently, a fly had gotten itself stuck in the bowl encasing one of our ceiling lights, and it could not get back out. Now, part of me was tempted to leave it there and let it starve to death. I have no great love for flies. They're an annoyance, and as far as human happiness is concerned, the world is probably better off without a particular fly than with it. Yet, it is good to practice compassion and to save lives when one can, so I decided to try to save the fly. Upon doing so, I learned too things: One, the "fly" was actually some kind of bee, and Two, the time spent in the dusty ceiling light bowl had rendered the bee unable to fly. For context, I dislike bees and wasps, having had a few negative experiences with them as a child. Yet, I was already in the process of trying to save the creature, so I did what I could to free it from the bowl, whereupon it fell to the floor. I had hoped that it would recover, that I would then catch it in a cup and take it outside. Yet, the bee seemed completely unable to function. Perhaps, if I had gotten it outside, and any allies of its came to its rescue, it might have survived, but seeing the flightless bee, I determined that it would probably never recover, and I squished it. The rescue mission became a mercy killing, and I'm not sure how to feel about that.
For starters, I must acknowledge that, as moral quandries go, this one had extremely low stakes. The life of an individual fly or bee is trivial, hardly worth trying to save or bothering to mourn. Short of maliciously torturing the helpless bee, I'm not sure there's anything I could have done in this situation that would have had a measureable effect on my soul, positively or negatively.
Secondly, I must acknowledge my biases. I believe that animals deserve much less moral consideration than humans, and I admit that I have a special disliking of bees. I hope that my anti-bee bias didn't factor much into my decision, but I'll admit that my human-centric speciesism did. I would be far more reluctant to give a human a mercy killing than I was to squish that bee, and I must admit that I may have given up on its life too easily.
I suppose I could award myself a few brownie points for even having this introspective reflection. After all, most people wouldn't give a second thought to the life or death of a fly or bee. But I'm also mostly examining this situation so I can blog about it, so even this introspection is selfish.
Had I taken the bee outside instead of squishing it, I'm not sure what would have happened. Maybe it could have been saved and could have lived a good life, for the rest of however bees live. Or maybe it wouldn't have been saved, and it would have died a slow and uncomfortable death. In terms of reducing suffering, perhaps it was a good thing to kill the bee. Yet, if the prevention of suffering is the ultimate good, then we should end all life on the planet, so no living thing could ever suffer again. Surely, that isn't the ultimate moral choice. There is also the potential for happiness and can outweigh the pain of suffering. Could the bee have been happy, had it managed to live?
I kind of doubt it. Even if the bee had lived, its life would have been negatively affected by this experience, possibly in permanently debilitating ways. Then again, who's to say whether its last few days or moments couldn't have been happy, despite the struggle it would have faced, had I allowed it to live?
Upon further reflection, I think I shouldn't have killed the bee. I have to believe that the potential for happiness was worth the likelihood of suffering, just as it is with us. People suffer. Yet, their lives are worth preserving, because there is almost always the possibility of enjoying some happiness during their mortal lives. Now, if the suffering is severe, there may be an argument for prematurely ending it, but that argument must contend with the possibility of happiness ahead. There was a chance, however slim, that that bee could have lived and been happy, and I should have taken that chance.
Instead, I killed the bee. Ultimately, that's not a huge loss. Thousands of bees are born and die each day. But this bee taught me a bit more about how precious life is, even when it's difficult. I should have tried harder to save its life and been less quick to prematurely end it.
No comments:
Post a Comment