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Chimps: Not Human, But Are They People? [View All]

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Ignis Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-14-09 02:02 PM
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Chimps: Not Human, But Are They People?
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Source: Wired Science News

As a population of West African chimpanzees dwindles to critically endangered levels, scientists are calling for a definition of personhood that includes our close evolutionary cousins.

<snip>

It’s a controversial position. If being a person requires being human, then chimpanzees, our closest primate relative, are still only 98 percent complete. But if personhood is defined more broadly, chimpanzees may well qualify. They have self-awareness, feelings and high-level cognitive powers. Hardly a month seems to pass without researchers finding evidence of behavior thought to belong solely to humans.

Some even suggest that chimpanzees and other great apes should be granted human rights. So argued advocates for Hiasl, a chimpanzee caught in an Austrian custody battle, and the framers of an ape rights resolution passed by the Spanish parliament. The question of rights is practically thorny — how could a chimp be held responsible for, say, attacking another chimp? — but the fundamental question isn’t practical, but rather scientific and ethical.

"They have been shown to have all kinds of complex communication and cognitive powers that are similar to humans," said Clayton State University primate researcher Jared Taglialatela. "They have feelings, they have ideas, they have goals."

Read more: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/10/chimpanzees-not/





There was also a study published in Current Biology back in February which shows that chimps and humans share the roots of language, using the same parts of the brain (Broca's & Wernicke's Areas) for speech production and processing.

Taken together, this would seem to present a compelling case for animal rights for our near-neighbors.
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