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I would say no. It seems like personhood involves rights and duties. While an intelligent ape or dolphin or crow should perhaps have certain rights, they don't have any duties. In other words, an ape should probably not be tortured or eaten, and should be left alone to do its own thing, but it has no duty to contribute in any way to our society and isn't legally responcible for its actions. As a human in America, yes you have rights, but you also have duties, like voting, obeying the law, ect ect. Then again severly mentally handicapped people who can't contribute are considered people. It seems like we need a three tier system. People, intelligent animals that should have to same protections as handicapped people, and unintelligent animals that can be eaten and used. The problem lies in determining which animals are intelligent, and I can't think of anyway of doing that that isn't subjective. The only test that I can think of is whether or not an animal can mourn its own fate. If I was about to die, my life would flash before my eyes so to speak. I would be sad for all the things in the future that I would miss out on. I think a cow would simply be in the moment, ie, worried about the immediate danger and nothing else. Thats just my opinion and it may be complete bullshit. Like I said I think our society is just going to have to come to a sujective consensus on what intellegence is and run with that.
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Dec 7, 2014 06:18
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drilldo squirt posted:I agree severely mentally retarded people are no better than animals.
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Dec 9, 2014 16:34
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