If one is a vegetarian because one believes in animal rights, if there was a cow who could talk, and told you that he wanted to be eaten, could one ethically eat it?

Cows are female so could not be 'he' but I don't think I even as a meat-eater could consume a cow that talked to me. I would however go and see a shrink, hearing cows talk is worrying :o)

that's assisted suicide, which could be either wrong or right. that would be a judgement call..

I think that all fiber from those vegetables are going to somebody's head

The act of talking moves the cow from the category of "animal" to "people." So, no. If a cow talked to me, and said it wanted to be eaten, I would arrange an appointment with a psychiatrist.

This reminds me of an old joke from Saturday Night Live: "If trees could scream, would we be quite so cavalier about cutting them down? We might. If they screamed all the time for no good reason."

Where's the ethical dilemma?

It would be fiscally irresponsible to kill such a cash cow, but hey, it's the talking cow that's the crazy one, right?

it's up to you I guess. If I told people I wanted to be eaten there would be some that would eat you and some other that wouldn't. It's like euthanasia, there are people against it, and people for it. It's up to your morality. Oh but you could also, instead of eating it, sell it to a freak circus, they'd be more than happy to get a talking cow. But that'd be really rude for the cow.

Probably not. It would be about the same as a *person* who would tell you that they want to be eaten.

See here my answer to a similar question:
http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4235226

If a human being told you that he wanted to be eaten (true story too by the way), could you "ethically" eat him? After all, we too are animals.