Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Scientists: Dolphins Should Be Treated as 'Non-Human Persons'


TimesOnline:
Dolphins have been declared the world’s second most intelligent creatures after humans, with scientists suggesting they are so bright that they should be treated as “non-human persons”.

Studies into dolphin behaviour have highlighted how similar their communications are to those of humans and that they are brighter than chimpanzees. These have been backed up by anatomical research showing that dolphin brains have many key features associated with high intelligence.

The researchers argue that their work shows it is morally unacceptable to keep such intelligent animals in amusement parks or to kill them for food or by accident when fishing. Some 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die in this way each year.
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I wonder if those who believe that we should protect dolphins are also pro-life?  If not, I wonder if they see the disconnect?

Oh that we would treat humans as humans and cease the legal slaughter of actual human persons in the womb.   How ironic is it that there are those who are willing to fight for the rights of those who are clearly "non-human", but fail to fight for the rights of those who are clearly human persons.

As Greg Koukl often says, a fetus is obviously a human person.  Dogs have puppies,  pigs have piglets, and humans have babies.  Something that grows is alive.  It's clearly a person. 

2 comments:

James said...

That's crazy. It surely also raises rather awkward questions for evolutionists. Why are dolphins closer in intelligence if we're involved from chimps?!

Dan said...

Of course since no one asked the scientists who made these pronouncements, we have no way of knowing what they think about abortion and related topics. Actually there are some radical PETA types that I have read about who also happen to be against abortion as part of their larger "respect for all life" outlook on things. The assumption made is scientists are secularists and are therefore in favour of abortion. I mention this because I found out this week that Christopher Hitchens is pro-life.

The "liberal" and "conservative" boxes that we assign to people are often reductionistic and inaccurate.