<
https://theconversation.com/the-darker-side-of-human-rights-for-great-apes-240122>
"The Spanish government has announced plans to ban harmful experiments on great
apes as part of a wider initiative to give them increased rights closer to the
ones humans enjoy.
These plans are forward thinking compared with most of the rest of the world
but the move is a double edged one. Bestowing human rights on great apes
because of their similarity to us creates a new criteria – other animals can
only be free of pain and suffering if researchers can prove they are
human-like.
Great apes are the subset of non-human primates which include orangutans,
gorillas, bonobos and chimpanzees. Over 16 years ago Spain first tried to grant
great apes personhood. The cross party resolution was discussed but was never
brought into law.
Currently, “unnecessary” experimentation is banned on great apes in 29
countries including the UK, the EU and New Zealand. This includes vivisection
(surgery on a live body) or torture, depending on your attitude to the moral
rights of great apes).
This may sound progressive. The problem is that “necessary” is defined in
different ways. It usually focuses on crisis situations such as pandemics and
epidemics, and in brain related research (primarily Alzheimer’s and brain
trauma research) where many scientists argue the similarity of the great ape
brain to humans makes it the only equivalent model. In 1999, New Zealand
proposed bestowing human rights on great apes, but stopped short of doing so,
instead banning all invasive experimentation on great apes.
The Balearic islands followed in 2008, and Austria is the only country in the
world to have banned all live surgery on non-human primates, great and lesser
(also known as gibbons, which include marmosets and baboons).
The Great Ape Project founded by moral philosophers Peter Singer and Paola
Cavalieri, campaigns for the end of great ape experimentation. On its homepage
are reminders of chimpanzees still incarcerated in laboratories, many of whom
have spent their entire lives undergoing experimental procedures, such as the
Alamogordo 26 in New Mexico. These 26 chimpanzees are still held at a
laboratory, despite not being used in medical research for over two decades.
The question of human rights for great apes raises a number of issues,
especially the way humans understand the natural world in a hierarchical
structure. Humans are at the apex of this structure, and control the other
levels of the hierarchy. This is known as speciesism. Who decides what is
ethical for other species? Humans are one species, yet it is our perception
which legislates the fate of all nonhuman animals."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
