Nineteen thousand children [are] dying every day. Does it really matter that we're not walking past them in the street? Does it really matter that they're far away? I don't think it does make a morally relevant difference.

Surely there will be some nonhuman animals whose lives, by any standards, are more valuable than the lives of some humans.

Ancient recipients of instant news probably couldn't do very much about it, for instance. Xerxes would still need three months to get his army together, and he might not get home for years.

I don't understand the notion that modern farming is anything do to with nature. It's a pretty gross interference with nature.

We should give the same respect to the lives of animals as we do to the lives of humans.

My major concern about leaving enhancement to the marketplace is that then the rich will be able to buy themselves genetically superior children and the poor will not - sharpening the class divisions we have now. That problem could be overcome if, genetic enhancement were available to all, subsidized by the state - and that would, over time, have benefits for society as well.

Knowing that we can control our own behaviour makes it more likely that we will.