You are presuming a symmetry here. All living beings are equivalent in their lives having worth. There is nothing scientific that asserts a basis for that symmetry. Flea, pig. Human, toad. Jellyfish, worm. All equal worth.
That can only come from some value system you are projecting.
It is a valid position for Jains and Buddhists and other practitioners of ahimsa. In the Buddhist context, all sentient beings have Buddha nature, and thus identical potential.
Even there, there is a broken symmetry, as not all beings have equal odds for actualizing that potential.
Which is what I think physics shows. The non equilibrium thermodynamics that lead to life, also lead to incredible complexity and diversity which includes higher animals with capacity for language, kinships, abstraction, the use of tools, etc. I would have a hard time with a false equivalence between all living beings as this would weigh killing 100 worms when I deworm my dog with killing 100 chimpanzees, whales, dolphins, elephants, etc.
So I am good with a model where all living beings have equal value re being protected and valued as part of an ecosystem. Not one that elevates killing a yeast cell with killing a 10 year old girl.
