July 15, 2008--No Apes In Gitmo
As I seek to simplify some things, others keep getting more complicated.
Case in point—in Spain where we happily spend part of each year, the Parliament is about to pass a law that would grant limited rights to great apes. Rights that will go considerably beyond preventing cruelty to animals and even further than those advocated by the good folks from PETA.
Spanish legislators contend that since great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans) share at least 95 percent of our DNA as well as many of our human qualities—the ability to feel happiness and fear, make and use tools, have language capabilities, and appear to be able to plan for the future as well as recall the past—for these reasons the law should protect their rights in much the same way that it protects children.
It will soon be illegal to kill apes except in self defense; they will no longer be subject to arbitrary imprisonment (though when the law is passed Spain has no plans to release the 300 apes currently in their zoos); and apes will be excluded from medical experiments, which are considered to be torture, including for AIDS research, because they are not considered to be capable of offering informed consent. (See NY Times article linked below.)
There is opposition. Most of it from Spain’s Catholic bishops who have seen their authority seriously eroded since the demise of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. They see this in theological terms: the new law would upset any notion, to them critical, that humans were by God placed separate and above all animals in His kingdom. To them, the prospect of granting quasi-human status to apes is almost like elevating the place in the divine hierarchy of women. If we do this for apes, they are virtually saying, the next thing you know they will want to become priests and bishops and cardinals.
But not to worry too much the legislators say—the law will not only not require apes to be released from their cages but it also we will not require them to go to school, own guns, or obtain drivers licenses. I’m relieved.
But Human Rights Watch is not impressed. They say there is no “blurry middle” that they’re concerned about between humans and great apes. A spokesman said, “Human rights are so woefully protected that we’re going to keep our focus there.” Like on what the U.S. continues to be up to with “detainees” in Guantånamo.
Case in point—in Spain where we happily spend part of each year, the Parliament is about to pass a law that would grant limited rights to great apes. Rights that will go considerably beyond preventing cruelty to animals and even further than those advocated by the good folks from PETA.
Spanish legislators contend that since great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans) share at least 95 percent of our DNA as well as many of our human qualities—the ability to feel happiness and fear, make and use tools, have language capabilities, and appear to be able to plan for the future as well as recall the past—for these reasons the law should protect their rights in much the same way that it protects children.
It will soon be illegal to kill apes except in self defense; they will no longer be subject to arbitrary imprisonment (though when the law is passed Spain has no plans to release the 300 apes currently in their zoos); and apes will be excluded from medical experiments, which are considered to be torture, including for AIDS research, because they are not considered to be capable of offering informed consent. (See NY Times article linked below.)
There is opposition. Most of it from Spain’s Catholic bishops who have seen their authority seriously eroded since the demise of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. They see this in theological terms: the new law would upset any notion, to them critical, that humans were by God placed separate and above all animals in His kingdom. To them, the prospect of granting quasi-human status to apes is almost like elevating the place in the divine hierarchy of women. If we do this for apes, they are virtually saying, the next thing you know they will want to become priests and bishops and cardinals.
But not to worry too much the legislators say—the law will not only not require apes to be released from their cages but it also we will not require them to go to school, own guns, or obtain drivers licenses. I’m relieved.
But Human Rights Watch is not impressed. They say there is no “blurry middle” that they’re concerned about between humans and great apes. A spokesman said, “Human rights are so woefully protected that we’re going to keep our focus there.” Like on what the U.S. continues to be up to with “detainees” in Guantånamo.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
6:22 AM
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