&gt; Such an odd view though, as we're not taking about a living breathing thinking human but rather a collection of cells the size of a lima bean.

I mean I'll agree the exact point at which something becomes a human life is really hard to pin down. Science hasn't figured out consciousness yet, so we don't know. Is a fetus a conscious human being at 2 months? 6 months? Not until birth? We don't know, and there's no way to prove it right now. I consider myself against late term abortion because it seems a reasonable compromise, but I don't see any way of knowing for sure that's the right answer.

For that matter, it could be that animals are conscious too, and you're right that killing and eating them is a tremendous cruelty that we'll all look back at in horror in 100 years. I just tend to think probably not.