I found this on slashdot... Apparently the justification for giving human rights to chimps is this: "He recognises himself in the mirror, plays hide-and-seek and breaks into fits of giggles when tickled. He is also our closest evolutionary cousin.". There is even talks of including chimps in the Habeas Corpus. Obviously these people have their hearts at the right place, but I think they are wrong. Firstly chimps are not human, no matter what their behaviour is like. In fact Bonobos are much closer to us when it comes to behaviour. What will happen when a chimp kills a human? Can it plead insanity because its IQ is lower? Should it get equal opportunity rights? Obviously it doesn't work that way. And why single out the chimp. Do we love ourselves so much that we'll only save animals that look like us? For me I'd rather have all the animals protected under the law to some degree. If we have to give them personal rights, we better design a new system from scratch. Are different species at birth unequal under the law?
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Should chimps have human rights?
I found this on slashdot... Apparently the justification for giving human rights to chimps is this: "He recognises himself in the mirror, plays hide-and-seek and breaks into fits of giggles when tickled. He is also our closest evolutionary cousin.". There is even talks of including chimps in the Habeas Corpus. Obviously these people have their hearts at the right place, but I think they are wrong. Firstly chimps are not human, no matter what their behaviour is like. In fact Bonobos are much closer to us when it comes to behaviour. What will happen when a chimp kills a human? Can it plead insanity because its IQ is lower? Should it get equal opportunity rights? Obviously it doesn't work that way. And why single out the chimp. Do we love ourselves so much that we'll only save animals that look like us? For me I'd rather have all the animals protected under the law to some degree. If we have to give them personal rights, we better design a new system from scratch. Are different species at birth unequal under the law?
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people visited the bayblab instead of doing their experiments
5 comments:
Soon I'll have chimps suing be for libel...
humans don't even have human rights across the globe and i think we should work on that first before we start including other species into this "human rights" mix
Yeah and it's a slipery slope. Next kamels are going to have rights?
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." - Mohandas Gandhi
No, I don't think chimps should be granted human rights. As mentioned above, not even all humans have human rights and it's a slippery slope. As mentioned in the article, if they win the rights case (which is primarily about legal guardianship of the chimp) they want the chimp to sue a vivisection lab. Is an animal capable of that kind of action? I think these guys have their hearts in the right place - trying to 'adopt' this chimp to manage upkeep money on its behalf - their heads are wrong in arguing for human rights.
And you all wish you had Kamel rights.
http://www.chimphaven.org/about.cfm
a little place for chimps to go after they're no longer needed for research :O
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