Mosquitoes are morally wrong.

2024-07-06

We should simply eradicate all mosquitoes. Humans aren't very good at protecting nature, but we are supremely skilled at destroying it. It's high time we put those skills to good use by killing all mosquitoes on planet earth. And if we ever come across any extraterrestrial mosquitoes, well we should kill those too. Let me make clear my position here. We have the technological capacity to eradicate all mosquitoes. Therefore, it's not accurate to say that mosquito bites are caused by the life cycle of an insect. Mosquito bites in fact are caused by misallocation of human resources. To the extent that moral principles can be agreed upon, it is generally the case that causing another person to come to harm without their consent is considered immoral. Therefore, the existence of mosquito bites is immoral. Since mosquito bites are contingent on the existence of mosquitoes, Mosquitoes are morally wrong. An entire species, who's entire mode of living requires sucking our blood. It's almost comically evil. In fact, blood sucking imagery is one of our cultural go-to metaphors for describing evil. If a human went around biting people and sucking their blood, we would shove a stake through their heart. Since mosquitoes are only capable of existing because of human inaction in their eradication, I contend that that is precisely what is happening. Mosquitoes and humans simply cannot continue to coexist. Of course, I haven't even mentioned the serious side of mosquito bites, that being mosquito-borne disease. From Wikipedia: "Nearly 700 million people contract mosquito-borne illnesses each year, resulting in more than a million deaths." There also exists a significant quantity among the human race (of which I am a part), who display some hypersensitivity towards mosquito bites. This can range from a mild localised allergic reaction (skeeter syndrome) to full anaphylaxis.

One would be hard-pressed to find an ardent proponent for the continued existence of the Salmonella enterica bacteria, or Mycobacterium tuberculosis, or even less deadly diseases like the common cold. Yet mosquitoes are not considered a disease. Why? If these red swollen, itchy wounds were caused by a bacterium, we wouldn't hesitate to condone its eradication. The distinctions are firstly that mosquitoes are of a more complex and numerous construction of cells compared to a bacterium, and secondly that their primary habitat is exterior to the human body. I cannot imagine an argument as to why these traits ought to change our ethical decisions on the matter of the eradication of disease. Mosquitoes are a disease. We ought to fight them like a disease.

A critic of my proposal might say that mosquitoes constitute a critical part of ecosystems, since they are eaten by birds, bats, amphibians and other creatures. In response, I do not deny this. I say this is nothing but a naturalistic fallacy. So what if they constitute a part of nature. If a system requires injustice to perpetuate its self-reproduction, then that system ought to be destroyed. We accept this line of argument in the so-called political sphere, we accept it with regard to the systems of microscopic or parasitic organisms, why do we draw the line at mosquitoes?

I'm right and you know it. Kill all mosquitoes.