First what Leona Helmsley did was alittle wacky. I Understand wanting to make sure your dog is taken care, but leaving your dog that much money is a bit much.

As for vegetarianism, I think you are reacting to extreme animal rights people like PETA. PETA is a bit much, while PETA does some good things, they tend to give animal rights a bad name. I am not a vegetarian, however, I try to eat ethically. I want the animal I eat to have a good life and one bad day. I want them to have the life a chicken or cow should have, being able to be chicken or a cow. It is hard to eat ethically, and I fail sometimes because often I can't afford to. But I am moving in that direction and doing what I can.

About animal testing, you ask good questions that are common concerns. They used to be my concerns. Of course I would pick my family over a lab rat, but then I met Washoe and her family. They are my friends and everyone of them was intended for biomedical. I could not imagine these guys, my friends, suffering like that. It was an unimaginable thought. That is when it hit me, what we are doing is wrong. We are sacrificing other lives. We are killing other species (sometimes endangered species) to perpetuate a overpopulated and destructive species. The bottom line for me is that the way we justify biomed is by putting ourselves above other species, and I just don't see it that way. Every life has a right to live a life free of cruelty. No, I do not want to die, I would like to avoid it, but I don't think it is fair that others are suffering so I can live. My point of view is very different from most. I don't believe in the hierarchy of life with human at the top, I believe in a horizontal plane where we all have our spot, none better then the other, just different.

A person cured from cancer could also go one to harm the world in a number of ways. A lab rat may not make a huge contribution to the world as a whole (at least not from the human perspective), but they will live to do alot less damage to the world than most humans. Yes i would choose the baby over the rat when held over a cliff, but I would also choose my baby over someone elses baby when held over a cliff.

It is all in the way you see the world and how you order the world. Is it a verticle or horizontal line?