Human Rights for Apes/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."
posted by maggie at 9:09 PM VOTE

4 Comments:

At 4/28/2006 10:49 PM,  José Solano said...

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It seems to me that the people introducing this bill have more in common with apes than they realize.

 

At 4/29/2006 2:58 AM,  Anonymous said...

hoo hoo hoo

 

At 4/29/2006 12:34 PM,  SPorcupine said...

I was getting weary of the "polygamy meme" and look forward to seeing how the "simian meme" will play.

Marriage of one chimp and one gorilla?" Polyamory for organgutans? And what is the age of sexual consent for apes with interests "the same as those of minors and the mentally handicapped"?

My guess would be that the Spanish Socialists don't mean to be raising any of those issues. But once they say "community of equals," I'm hard put to see how they avoid the discussion of such roles for those "equals."

 

At 4/29/2006 12:58 PM,  maggie said...

Gee, I hadn't thought this was a marriage related post. (A good example of how frustrating my blogging style is for both me and MD readers. "imputed arguments": this is on marriage debate. Maggie must have thought this had something to do with marriage. Makes sense. But really for it I posted it as part of "what's happening in Spain?" thread. Clearly a lot of culture change is going on.

 

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