[extropy-chat] Spanish Socialists considergivingapeshuman-level rights

[Samantha Atkins]

On Apr 27, 2006, at 10:27 AM, Hughes, James J. wrote:

>
>> Isn't this a bit fascist to force a species to upgrade and
>> achieve a higher intelligence.
>
> I'm not talking about obligations to species, but to individual  
> beings.
>
> Is it fascist to make your kid eat spinach or go to school, even  
> though
> they don't want to?
>
> No, in fact it is immoral not to make them do these things. Because  
> they
> do not yet have the capacity to decide for themselves whether they  
> would
> benefit. One of the reasons we have a moral obligation to make kids go
> to school is so they will eventually become self-governing adults who
> can make decisions for themselves.
>
> The same logic applies to apes.
>

No, it doesn't.  The ape is not a human being or a human child.  The  
"logic" depends on a spurious analogy being accepted.

- samantha