Is killing sharks for human uses bioethical?

Question

I was discussing this whole idea with my friend:

Thousands of sharks are killed and used for medicine, tourist items, food, and beauty care uses.

Examples include: Cornea Repair, LIpsticks, Sharktooth necklaces, Food, and Shark liver Pills,

Is it bioethical for people to kill sharks. I believe not because their use for us humans is less important then the ecosystem and the balance that the sharks create. Many of these sharks are becoming endangered and are soon to be extinct if action isn't about to take place.

Is this ethical?

Give me both points please

Answer 1

I'm going to go beyond the point of your question (bioethics) because the shark killing issue is of a much larger scale than you imagine. We're not only killing thousands of sharks, we are killing over one hundred million every year. Each killing by itself is quite unethical, because sharks caught by longliners (huge boats that drop a line with tens of thousands of hooks baited with dolphin meat) get their fins cut off alive and are thrown back into the ocean, to be eaten alive or suffer an agonizing death that can take days or even weeks! Longliners are decimating whole congregations of often endangered species of sharks. For example, Oceanic White Tip sharks, once abundant, have been reduced to less than 1% of their population. Longliners are also responsible for the killing of tens of thousands of critically endangered sea turtles, dolphins and albatros.

There is absolutely no way to justify a massacre on such a large scale for the sake of food (mostly shark fin soup). Sharks contain high levels of toxins (mercury) and are therefore not fit for human consumption. Shark cartilage has also not been proven to be of any health benefit.

Sharks are the apex predators of the oceans, have been shaping their ecosystem for over 400 million years and have been slaughtered to near extinction in one human lifetime. The impact of removing sharks from the ecosystem is unknown but could have dramatic effects, because that ecosystem includes algae, which produce 70-80% of the oxygen we breathe and capture CO2 (90% of the world's total carbon is stored by the oceans). Ultimately, it could lead to the extinction of most species on earth, including ours. Of course, life will continue... as long as a few bacteria survive, the whole cycle will start again, and in a few hundred million years, some intelligent species could start again...

So there is only one answer: killing sharks is not only unethical, it's a crime against humanity.

One of the only organisations to actively fight against shark finning is Sea Shepherd. Please support them!

Answer 2

Killing of animals for whatever the reason is just NOT ethical.

Answer 3

No it is not .

Answer 4

no, not really ethical. But look at animals sitting in laboratories because they need to test products on them. They may make the lipstick from sharks but they rub it in rabbits eyes....food consumption of animals is also scary to think about. For example baby chicks have their beaks snapped off with a blade. Cows have their throats sliced and sometimes don't die right away and lie there bleeding.

We race horses and dogs, some people illegal fight dogs and harm their pets...

It seems the majority of us do not treat animals ethically.