Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Chimps with rights?
I was browsing Slashdot this morning (my favorite of the required blogs due to it's quirky current news feeds) and I cam across a comical article entitled "Shoulc Chimps Have Human Rights?". This article explains how a Brazillian court has granted a chimp habeas corpus in a recent case and now the same might occur in Austria. Habeas corpus is basically the right to a fair trial and punishment which thus far has only been applied to humans. The article however points out the similarities we share with chimps and states that a group of world leading primatologists feels that they should be treated like humans for this reason, even in the court of law. Now, this might be going a bit too far but who am I to judge? I don't know enough about the mental capacities of chimpanzees. Maybe they should be treated as our equals... we shall soon find out. Read more of the article here!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
This is a rather interesting, if not amusing post. While I don't particularly think chimps should have the same rights as humans, I think the bigger issue would be if they were those rights, where animal lovers and environmentalists would go from there. The situation could defiantely get out of hand very quickly.
I think that this is weird. Why would chimpanzees have the same rights as humans?! And what the could the possibly be charged with in a court of law? I agree with Roger, I think the fact that they are even considering this issue to begin with is ridiculous, let alone what would happen if it actually went through. Weird, really weird.
I know guys.. weird, eh? But it's a true story. I agree with Roger when he discussed the endless possibilities where something like this could go. We need to look at the bigger picture and really think about the difference between humans and animals.
Post a Comment