[extropy-chat] Spanish Socialists consider giving apes human-level rights

[Samantha Atkins]

While the great apes are near enough genetically that I believe they  
should not be abused in any way it is sheer nonsense to claim they  
are equals or that they have the same rights as human beings.

I don't see the point in strutting about regarding uplift of various  
animals when the very survival much less uplift of humanity is far  
from in the bag.

- samantha

On Apr 27, 2006, at 7:19 AM, A B wrote:

> Hi James,
>
> I strongly agree. Reducing or eliminating animal suffering should  
> be a high
> priority post-Singularity. My view on this might seem extreme, but  
> I would recommend
> safely enhancing animals to be roughly on par with human  
> intelligence (I suppose some instincts will need to be tweeked),  
> and beyond if that is their choice. In my
> opinion, after million(s) of years of supporting (proto)humans in  
> various painful ways, we owe them a favor.
>
> Best Wishes,
>
> Jeffrey Herrlich
>
> "Hughes, James J." <james.hughes at trincoll.edu> wrote:
>
> I may not be as radical as George Dvorsky but I am a great  
> supporter of
> Great Ape rights. I see the move to non-anthropocentric personhood
> rights as a central agenda item for transhumanism, one of its defining
> ideas along with human enhancement technologies. The debate needs  
> to be
> how far beyond humans we grant rights/moral-standing, not whether we
> transcend human-racism or not. - J. Hughes
>
> http://www.spainherald.com/3438.html
>
> Socialists: Give apes human rights
>
> Spain Herald
>
> The Spanish Socialist Party will introduce a bill in the Congress of
> Deputies calling for "the immediate inclusion of (simians) in the
> category of persons, and that they be given the moral and legal
> protection that currently are only enjoyed by human beings." The  
> PSOE's
> justification is that humans share 98.4% of our genes with  
> chimpanzees,
> 97.7% with gorillas, and 96.4% with orangutans.
>
> The party will announce its Great Ape Project at a press conference
> tomorrow. An organization with the same name is seeking a UN  
> declaration
> on simian rights which would defend ape interests "the same as  
> those of
> minors and the mentally handicapped of our species."
>
> According to the Project, "Today only members of the species Homo
> sapiens are considered part of the community of equals. The  
> chimpanzee,
> the gorilla, and the orangutan are our species's closest relatives.  
> They
> possess sufficient mental faculties and emotional life to justify  
> their
> inclusion in the community of equals."
>
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