“Tommy is the equivalent of a human child,” he told Wired. “He is a cognitive and extraordinarily complex being.”
The quote is from Steven Wise, a Harvard Law Professor.
Tommy is a chimpanzee.
This is allegedly about whether or not chimps (and presumably other animals) can be held “against their will” and used in research. More details are available at these web sites:
http://qz.com/388067/two-chimpanzees-have-been-officially-recognized-as-legal-persons/
http://news.sciencemag.org/plants-animals/2015/04/judge-s-ruling-grants-legal-right-research-chimps
One judge did actually rule in favor of recognizing chimps as legal persons, until another judge wrote something about how wrong that decision was. Wrong – not by any moral standards, but by legal standards:
“In our view, it is this incapability to bear any legal responsibilities and societal duties that renders it inappropriate to confer upon chimpanzees the legal right—such as the fundamental right to liberty protected by the writ of habeas corpus—that have been afforded to human beings,” judge Karen Peters wrote in the official opinion and order.
That statement did nothing to overturn or even conflict with the views of Wise, the Harvard Professor who filed the writ of habeus corpus that got this whole thing started.
In fact, Wise continues –
“Chimpanzees are autonomous, self-determining beings. Why shouldn’t they be legal persons?” he told Wired. “How is it that we can ignore the autonomy of a nonhuman, while making [autonomy] to be a supreme value of a human being?”
And there’s the real issue –
“How is it that we can ignore the autonomy of a nonhuman, while making [autonomy] to be a supreme value of a human being?”
What about the (not “a”) supreme value of a human being coming from the fact that The Supreme Being (God) created us and loves us as His special beings?
Ge 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Ge 1:27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
We are the only ones created in His image.
Ge 2:4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens— 5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground— 7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
We are the only ones formed by the hand of God – as opposed to being created by a command from God, as in “Let there be …”
We are the only ones given the breath of life from God.
These things all serve to let us know that we are valued above everything else that God created.
Statements such as the ones from the Harvard Law Professor, or rulings like what we saw from the judges here, serve only to undermine what God has told us.
The cost of doing something good
Yes – they do attempt to do something good for the chimps, but at what cost?
In elevating the status of the chimps, the status of people is also changed. Is it really necessary to equate a chimp to a human child in order so save that chimp from being used for research?
Earlier, I used part of the qz.com article to extract a statement from professor Wise. Here it is, in context –
In Wise’s mind, Tommy’s case not all that different from those concerning trafficked children: “Tommy is the equivalent of a human child,” he told Wired. “He is a cognitive and extraordinarily complex being.”
Seriously? These chimps are the same as children sold for sex? Give me a break! I’d hate to be one of his children.
Is it not better to go back to the Bible – listen to the words of our Supreme Being who created us as valuable because we are made in His image – and do what He said?
Ge 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Do we really think that God meant for us to be cruel to animals? I know way too many people are, but I don’t for one second believe that’s what God intended.
We have 3 rescue dogs right now – two of which were abandoned – the third one’s owner passed away. We didn’t need to elevate our dogs to the level of a human being in order to save them from being put to sleep. We do consider them special and consider them part of our “family”, but not to the point of a human child.
If we could just accept that God meant for us to rule in a way that looked at every animal as one of His creations and to be treated as such – then elevating them to the same level as people wouldn’t be necessary.
In fact – I don’t believe is it necessary.
Makes me wonder – is the real goal to save the chimps – or is it to degrade people?
image from qz.com