Rather than seeking to elevate some animals to the level of humans, utilitarian bioethics advocates would reduce some humans to the status of animalswith the concept of “person” again serving as the point of the spear. Unlikely as it may seem, utilitarian bioethics is the counterpart to animal rights in the war on human exceptionalism. Wise, the force behind the NHRP lawsuits put it in 2002, animal personhood “would be the first and most crucial step toward unlocking the cage.” Last year the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) brought a similar lawsuit in federal court, asking a federal judge to declare Sea World’s orcas to be “slaves.” The case was dismissedbut note: The judge based his decision on an 1864 definition of “slavery” as “the condition of a slave the state of entire subjection of one person to the will of another.”īut what if animals were declared legal persons? Animal rights activists argue that it would require an end to human ownership of those animalsjust as humans cannot own each other.

The chimp cases were the merely the latestthey certainly won’t be the lastlawsuits seeking to “break the species barrier” that divides the moral worth and legal status of humans and animals. For now, at least, only humans (and our juridical associations, such as corporations) possess legal rights.

The lawsuitspredicated on the intelligence of chimps, their sophisticated behavior, a supposed autonomy similar to that of human beings, and an alleged empathywere promptly thrown out of court. The Nonhuman Rights Project made headlines recently by filing three lawsuits seeking to have chimpanzees declared legal persons entitled to “bodily liberty,” and hence, writs of habeas corpus to end their forced captivity.

The War on Humans by Wesley J. Smith