Because Western society and the law considers it to be gross desecration of a corpse. But people do eat the dead in other cultures. Some native tribes in Africa and South America consume their dead, believing that doing so will give them the strength and knowledge of the deceased person. And often, that's the only meat they have available. Here in the West we have an overabundance of meat products, so we can afford to be picky about what sorts we choose to eat...and again, there's that whole thing about it being illegal to eat a corpse...

No, you get the reputation for being "stuck-up" when you insist that you're morally superior to meat-eaters. I'm not saying all vegetarians do it, as I know a few who don't. But I also know a few who do that. In any case, when you have a specific diet, it is up to YOU to inform the person making the meal for you. They shouldn't have to ask everybody when they make a meal if they're OK with what they're making. If you have a problem with a specific food, it is your responsibility to inform them.

If it's somebody like your girlfriend's parents, then yeah, I'd say it's safe to assume they'll be making dinner for you at some point in time. In which case, being vegetarian would be a very handy piece of information to share with them. It's not like saying those things. At all. For many vegetarians, they don't eat meat because of moral obligations. When would it morally reprehensible to YOU if you had to like dogs? Or like the color orange? Those are all relatively superficial things that don't affect your day-to-day life. As for buying a present, if you DO ask them what they like or what they want, then that could very possibly take all the surprise out of what you're getting them. Plus, a gift is supposed to be from the heart, so if you were to buy them something that they happen to not like, guess what? It was a gift. They can get over it. You bought them something out of the goodness of your heart. If they don't like it, then they should very well still be grateful for the gift. If they're not, then they have problems. The point of the gift is to get them something you THINK they might like. It's what makes giving and receiving gifts so exciting.

If he's never met them before, then how would they have asked him if he eats meat? There is a chance that there were also vegetables in the meal. Whether there were or weren't, maybe vegetables just aren't a common part of the girlfriend's parents' diets. We don't know.

Also, yes, vegetarianism is a preference in food, but it's a morally-grounded preference. Is your preferred color based on you morals? I'm betting it's not. You wouldn't buy someone a present if you didn't know what they like? I'd buy someone a present even if I didn't have a clue. If I'm wrong and they hate it, they aren't going to think less of me. It's a gift. It's the gesture that matters. I've gotten plenty of gifts in my life that I wasn't particularly fond of, but I still showed my gratitude to the person who gave it to me because I knew that they were doing it out of the goodness of their heart.

Yes, but if she knows, it would make more sense for her to just tell them. If she knows, and they don't, then it would make far more sense for her to just tell them outright then to bank on the chance that they'll ask her. As you can see from the FML, the girlfriend should have just told the parents because not everybody asks about that kind of thing. Preferences can still be preferences even if they aren't based on any moral grounds. And yes, a preference doesn't necessarily bear more importance if it's based on morals. However, moral preferences are generally considered far more pertinent as they are oftentimes a way of life, as in the case of vegetarianism.

Eh, false. My vegetarianism is grounded in the fact that I just don't like meat. That's not exactly morality.

OK, so what I said doesn't necessarily apply to all vegetarians, but it applies to a lot of them.

Let's say the parents wanted to make him a chocolate cake. They ask him if he eats cake. He says yes; he happens to really like chocolate cake. They make it for him. A few months later, he decides to go on a diet and cuts out all desserts from his diet. The parents want to make him another cake. Assuming that he's OK with it because he had told them before that he was, they make it for him. He refuses because of his diet. Now, who in this situation is at fault? The parents, because they didn't ask him because they knew already that he liked the cake, or the man, because he failed to inform them of his diet? When you have a specific diet, it is up to YOU to inform the person making the meal for you. In the situation I described above, it would have been silly if the parents asked him every time they made cake if it was something he eats.

No, not if it's something he has already told them he likes. If you decide to go on a diet, it is YOUR responsibility to inform people. What if his parents were to make him a meal? They've known him his whole life, and are probably more familiar than anyone with his diet. Yet, they don't know that he just decided to stop eating desserts. Do you REALLY think they're gonna ask him if he eats cake if they know he's been eating it his whole life? No, they aren't; that would be silly. Therefore, it is up to him to inform them of his change in diet.

You're right; there's a decent chance he does make his own meals. But his parents still might have him over for dinner occasionally like most parents do. Or maybe he still lives at home and his parents still cook dinner for him because he lives there. We don't know. In either case, they would be under the impression that cake is part of his current diet when it might not be. So it is his responsibility to inform them otherwise.

Yes, it's entirely his responsibility to inform people who are preparing him food as to what his preferences are. Are they supposed to just magically know that he doesn't like meat?

As I said earlier, you also often kill animals to make soy and grain products. Field animals are chewed up inside combines all the time, and their meat goes entirely to waste. Beef products. Yes yes, it does come from several different cows. Disregard that fact. There is enough meat on a single cow to provide a decent meal. A few beef ribs, a hamburger, and a fairly large steak. The same portions of vegetable matter, during harvesting, takes the lives of hundreds of mice, rabbits, and other field animals, and that meat is never used. It's just plucked out of the combine and thrown away, while the plants are processed into food. People who are vegetarians "because they don't want to kill animals" are MORONS unless they plant and harvest their own crops by old-fashioned methods. Because they fail to realize that a whole shitload of animals are killed to make their tofurkey and soybean salad. If you don't eat meat because your body can't process it properly, fine by me. Eat what you need to eat to be healthy. If you don't eat meat for religious reasons, fine by me. It's your god, your faith, do what you will. If you don't eat meat for personal dietary of health reasons, fine by me. Again, eat what you must to be healthy. But don't preach about how you're "saving the animals" by only eating vegetables. You're not saving anything. You're merely wasting the lives of animals to harvest grain, while we make USE of animals to fuel our bodies.

Well, the long run doesn't really matter when you consider that you're only going to be alive for a century, more or less. And the amount of animals being wasted in harvest will increase if the demand for grains, soy, and other mass-harvested vegetables increases. This includes corn, wheat, and many other basic crops. The more harvesting machines we have running, the more small animals die getting chewed up in a harvest. This problem will continue and increase until new harvesting technology is developed . The only way people would "save" animals by becoming vegetarian is if an alternate method of mass harvesting were introduced, one that doesn't simply comb through the crop (thereby tearing out crop and field animals alike). Now, once you invent such a machine, you can start talking about "saving the animals".