Natural selection is indifferent to the intensity of suffering unless it relates to survival because it does not care for individuals in a species but rather whether or not that species’ genes will be passed on. If a species is subjected to more pain and death because of certain traits that it already possesses then natural selection may take that into account and favor the traits that cause overall less pain and leads to more instances of reproduction. On the other hand, natural selection may ignore the suffering of one species in favor of the survival of another species such as the Ichneumon wasps that paralyze and lay their eggs inside caterpillars. Dawkins points out that in this case “natural selection could in any case take no steps
