Should Chimps Have Human Rights? 1019
An anonymous reader writes "A Brazilian court has already issued a writ of habeas corpus in the name of a chimp. And now an Austrian court may well decide that a chimpanzee is a 'person' with what up until now have been called human rights." From the story in the Guardian/Observer: "He recognizes himself in the mirror, plays hide-and-seek and breaks into fits of giggles when tickled. He is also our closest evolutionary cousin. A group of world leading primatologists argue that this is proof enough that Hiasl, a 26-year-old chimpanzee, deserves to be treated like a human. In a test case in Austria, campaigners are seeking to ditch the 'species barrier' and have taken Hiasl's case to court. If Hiasl is granted human status — and the rights that go with it — it will signal a victory for other primate species and unleash a wave of similar cases."
Great Apes Project (Score:5, Informative)
Brazilian judicial system (Score:3, Informative)
Despite of those aberrations, judicial system in Brazil is not that ridiculous. It is massively slow and a lot of times unjust, but we are not near to give animals (or companies, for all that matters) full rights of a natural person.
Not *full* humans rights, but see Spain... (Score:5, Informative)
FYI there was a proposal in Spain [blogspot.com] to give to all the non-human Great Apes some very basic rights (they cannot be killed, tortured or keep in captivity).
And the scientific name for Great Apes (humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans) is hominids [wikipedia.org] and we have in common more of 97% of our DNA even with the more different of them (this obviously doesn't make them automatically humans).
Re:How about human rights for humans? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:well ... (Score:5, Informative)
This is a common misconception. There's no missing link that shows chimpanzees ever evolved into humans. The "missing link", if found, would demonstrate that both species came from a common ancestor millions of years ago before the two evolutionary paths diverged.
Re:well ... (Score:5, Informative)
http://chimprescue.wordpress.com/2007/03/03/a-wor
Daniel
Re:Not *full* humans rights, but see Spain... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:How about human rights for humans? (Score:5, Informative)
I watched a tv program the other day (that's easy too) about a guy who just woke up one day and said "I'm going to quit my job and start a charity". He told his wife and she said "if you think we can, I'll do everything I can to help". So they did. They took all the food out of their kitchen pantry, put it in a cane basket and went down the pub to raffle it off. People bought the tickets because it was "for charity". With the money they bought more cane baskets and more food and did it again, and again.
I live in Australia, and like many parts of the world we're going through a drought. This guy went out to farms and gave farmers some food to keep them going, etc. He went out to cattle farms where the cattle were getting really skinny due to a lack of grass and bought them hay. One of the farms he went out to was struggling not just because of lack of feed, but also because of lack of labour. I thought his solution to this was phenomonal.. he went back to the city and found a half dozen homeless young guys and convinced them to come out and work on the farm.
My point is.. everyone who says "there's nothing I can do" and has a big bleeding heart for all the pain and suffering in the world then goes back to posting on Slashdot.. there is something you can do. You can dedicate your life to helping people and making it easy for other people to help people. You choose not to. So don't cry about it, live with it.
Re:Soul? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Not *full* humans rights, but see Spain... (Score:3, Informative)
Cows evolved to die. They're prey...
Re:Awesome! (Score:2, Informative)
And btw, for better or worse, cows are a genetically engineered monster bred specifically for meat and milk. It's not a natural species that humans keep abusing. If all humans would disappear from the face of the earth, cows will perish as well.
Re:Not *full* humans rights, but see Spain... (Score:5, Informative)
Peta have links to the ALF for example, and the ALF have come close to killing humans involved in animal research. They gave over $100,000 in non repayable loans to Rod Coronado who firebombed laboratories [wikipedia.org] for example. Ingrid Newkirk [wikipedia.org], President of Peta was has been accused of having prior knowledge of ALF actions. She was also quoted as saying "no movement for social change has ever succeeded without 'the militarism component'". Note militarism [m-w.com], not militant [m-w.com].
Seems to me you're better off joining the RSPCA / ASPCA which are against both animal cruelty and the terrorists of the ALF.
Re:Not *full* humans rights, but see Spain... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not *full* humans rights, but see Spain... (Score:3, Informative)
They think their ends justify deception and trickery to promote their cause. A cause which I don't think too many peole can really support. Their stated goal is to turn the entire world vegan to the point where we don't use animals at all for food, clothing, research or entertainment.
Frankly that would pretty much cause the extinction of all domesticated farm animals. Who's going to raise chickens when no one will eat them? Who will raise cows when milk, meat and leather are useless? Who will herd sheep when no one wants wool or mutton?
If might put an end to all domesticated animals period, if they decide that cats and dogs are kept for "entertainment". No thanks, PETA is just a group of zealots who place animals above humans.
Re:Sure... and we can take it one step further... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:How about human rights for humans? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:woa, what about (Score:3, Informative)
If he acts like, "hey, there's this dog in the mirror with a red dot" he's reacting to what looks like another dog. If he acts like "shit, I've got a red dot on my forehead" then you have a self aware dog.
The problem with dogs is finding something they won't be able to smell on themselves. Unawareness is critical to the experiment.
Re:Rights and responsibilites (Score:2, Informative)
Apart from freedom from torture, most citizens in the US don't have those rights. Most don't even have the right to basic health care, which is something that the rest of the developed world consistently finds astonishing.
The right to food and shelter is not a "right" afforded to criminals, but a duty of the state. If you want to incarcerate them, you have to look after them.
And perhaps most disturbingly, in many places in the US, criminals do not have the right to vote, even after they are released. So much for "no taxation without representation".
However, most rights still have responsibilities. Freedom of speech, surely one of the most basic of basic rights in a democracy, does not include the freedom to engage in slander or libel. That's an associated responsibility.