Should nonhuman persons have the same rights we do?

[eynon81]

[The Dharma Bum]

[exploited]

[John Galt]

its debasing to humanity to consider animal rights. you cannot bring them up to our level currently (see comrade's comment on ocra voting) so all it does is bring humans down. "animal rights" are immoral.

also in regards to teenagers, they will become fully reasoned righted people. an ape never will get to that level

i also agree with you exploited that the severely mentally disabled do not have rights, but I do think they should be protected

[Spider]

I don't have a problem with rights being extended to persons...but only if they can be empirically proven to be persons. A solid, *testable*, definition for personhood, which doesn't hinge on philosophical ruminations and double-think, would have to be developed. I think certain species of apes and maybe marine mammals could qualify.

In the meantime, protections can be maintained. There is no reason to cause undue pain and suffering. People who abuse animals can continue to go to prison for their crimes. Of course, since millions of animals are harvested for food every day, there is always going to be some measure of this pain and suffering. Short of some sort of tofu self-abuse revolution, this isn't going to change. We're apex predators.

Difference between us and other predators is that we'll blow an animal's mind, killing it like flipping a switch, painlessly. A lion on the other hand will pull some animal's guts out and start eating them while their prey is still alive and screaming.

Maybe if the lion is deemed a person and given rights, it should also be held accountable for its actions.

[exploited]

[John Galt]

[The Dharma Bum]

[exploited]

[The Dharma Bum]

clearly the concepts of "rights" and "personhood" are meaningless.

it can't really be said that most humans are actually rational because they are just semi-complex game theory calculators, totally informed by their cultural programming.

we think we are special and deserving of privilege as individuals only because of our interior subjective experience, not anything reasonable or objective.