iblog

Many world religions declare animals as inferior to humans, and I think most people nowadays would agree. But there is an incredible new international movement which aims to give the ape, an animal that shares the same ancestors as humans, a “personhood”. What this means is a little vague but the point is that given that apes differ from humans by only one per cent of DNA and display remarkable intelligence, there seems no reason not to grant them even more rights like those of humans. Of course, this probably does not mean things like the right to vote (at least I hope not). If it means more respect though, I wholeheartedly agree that they should be given more consideration. Animals such as these often suffer so much abuse from humans, which I think is unacceptable.

But I don’t think the reason behind giving apes more rights should have much to do with how much DNA they share. I think what counts is pure sentience - or the ability to feel pain - which apes share with thousands of other species who are also in need of similar protection. Steve Jones, professor of genetics at University of London, says we cannot apply human rights to animals because DNA doesn’t matter, apes just cannot have the responsibilities humans can. I agree with this comment but again, I think it’s important to realise that basic rights such as the right not to be in pain should be to do with what the animal can feel, not what the animal can think.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 29th, 2007 at 9:11 pm and is filed under Science, Nature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.