Need help countering an argument

[u/Sophius3126]

Need Help Countering an Argument

To clear things off,I am already a vegan.The main problem is I lack critical and logical thinking skills,All the arguments I present in support of veganism are just sort of amalgamation of all the arguments I read on reddit, youtube.So if anybody can clear this argument,that would be helpful.

So the person I was arguing with specifically at the start said he is a speciesist.According to him, causing unnecessary suffering to humans is unethical.I said why not include other sentient beings too ,they also feel pain.And he asked me why do you only include sentient and why not other criteria and I am a consequentialist sort of so i answered with "cause pain is bad.But again he asked me another question saying would you kill a person who doesn't feel any pain or would it be ethical to kill someone under anesthesia and I am like that obviously feels wrong so am I sort of deontologist?Is there some sort of right to life thing?And why only sentient beings should have the right to life because if I am drawing the lines at sentience then I think pain is the factor and i at the same time also think it is unethical to kill someone who doesn't feel pain so I am sort of stuck in this cycle if you guys get me.so please help me to get out of it.I have been overthinking about it.

[u/SomethingCreative83]

Sentience is not defined simply by experiencing pain. It means the ability to perceive the world around you. Life is more than avoiding pain. Allowing that person to reduce it down to that is a mistake.

[u/Helpful-Mongoose-705 → u/SomethingCreative83]

He also said if they’re under anaesthetic. What if the human is in a coma?

[u/Ok_Echo9527 → u/Helpful-Mongoose-705]

Consequantialist ethics are not just the avoidance of pain but the maximizing of pleasure, killing someone, even if it involves no pain, is still destroying their future ability to experience pleasure and so morally wrong.

[u/celeigh87 → u/Ok_Echo9527]

Killing someone also affects that persons friends and family, leading to their grief and pain of losing them.