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Sanity in the Court: Judge Denies Claim That Chimps are Persons
Aletelia ^
| August 1, 2015
| JOHN BURGER
Posted on 08/01/2015 3:02:56 PM PDT by NYer
Though a New York judge ruled Thursday that the law still considers chimpanzees property, not people, a prominent thinker in the pro-life movement warned that attempts to raise animals to human status will continue.
Wesley J. Smith, co-director of the Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism, said Friday, "We are gratified that a court refused to declare two chimpanzees 'persons.' That is right and proper. Chimps are animals, and the 'species barrier' separating the value of humans and animals, as some animal rights advocates put it, must never be breached."
"But make no mistake," Smith said. "Attempts to elevate animalsand even natureto human-level value have only just begun."
An organization calling itself the Nonhuman Rights Project filed lawsuits in December of 2013 claiming that four New York chimpanzeesHercules and Leo at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and two others on private propertywere too cognitively and emotionally complex to be held in captivity and should be relocated to an established chimpanzee sanctuary, Science magazine reported.
NhRP petitioned three lower court judges with a writ of habeas corpus, which is traditionally used to prevent people from being unlawfully imprisoned. By granting the writ, the judges would have implicitly acknowledged that chimpanzees were legal people tooa first step in freeing them.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe, considering the claim against Stony Brook, acknowledged the similarities between chimpanzees and humans, but felt she was bound by precedent to deny the claim.
The ruling came just weeks after Steven Wise, a lawyer for the NhRP, argued the case in court, comparing Hercules and Leos confinement to slavery, the involuntary detention of people with mental illnesses and imprisonment.
But an assistant attorney general, representing the state university system, argued that chimpanzees are not entitled to legal personhood rights because they could not fulfill the responsibilities of people in society.
Wise presented hundreds of pages of expert opinions from academics, zoologists, biologists and others he said supported the claim that cognitively, chimpanzeesalong with dolphins, bonobos, orangutans and elephantsare advanced species, the Associated Press reported.
Justice Jaffe didnt shut the door on a future ruling. "Efforts to extend legal rights to chimpanzees are...understandable; some day they may even succeed," she wrote in a 33-page decision. "For now, however, given the precedent to which I am bound, it is hereby ordered, that the petition for a writ of habeas corpus is denied and the proceeding is dismissed."
In a statement, the NhRP said it would appeal the ruling but pointed out that Jaffe said in her ruling that "the parameters of legal personhood have been and will continue to be discussed and debated by legal theorists, commentators, and courts and will not be focused on semantics or biology, even philosophy, but on the proper allocation of rights under the law, asking, in effect, who counts under our law.
The ruling is only a minor setback, according to the Discovery Institute's Smith, who said that "animal personalizers" are on a roll.
"An Argentinean judge has declared an orangutan to be a 'person,' and granted a writ of habeas corpus in the animal's name, forcing the ape to be removed from a zoo. New Zealand has declared a river to be a person with 'rights,'" he said.
"This threat to the unique dignity and sanctity of human life must be taken seriously and combatted with the greatest vigor in our parliaments, legislatures, courts, and organs of public opinion," Smith warned. "If we elevate animals and nature to the status of humans, we are really reducing us to the status of animals. If that is how we define ourselves, that is precisely how we will act."
Smith finds it ironic that attempts to personalize animals and nature comes at a time when "concerted efforts are under way in bioethics and law to depersonalize some people, the unborn, people with profound disabilities, etc. These so-called human non-persons are seen as natural resources, to be harvested and experimented onas we have seen in the USA with Planned Parenthood."
John Burger is news editor for Aleteia's English edition.
Though a New York judge ruled Thursday that the law still considers chimpanzees property, not people, a prominent thinker in the pro-life movement warned that attempts to raise animals to human status will continue.
Wesley J. Smith, co-director of the Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism, said Friday, "We are gratified that a court refused to declare two chimpanzees 'persons.' That is right and proper. Chimps are animals, and the 'species barrier' separating the value of humans and animals, as some animal rights advocates put it, must never be breached."
"But make no mistake," Smith said. "Attempts to elevate animalsand even natureto human-level value have only just begun."
An organization calling itself the Nonhuman Rights Project filed
lawsuits in December of 2013 claiming that four New York chimpanzeesHercules and Leo at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and two others on private propertywere too cognitively and emotionally complex to be held in captivity and should be relocated to an established chimpanzee sanctuary, Science magazine reported.
NhRP petitioned three lower court judges with a writ of habeas corpus, which is traditionally used to prevent people from being unlawfully imprisoned. By granting the writ, the judges would have implicitly acknowledged that chimpanzees were legal people tooa first step in freeing them.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe, considering the claim against Stony Brook, acknowledged the similarities between chimpanzees and humans, but felt she was bound by precedent to deny the claim.
The ruling came just weeks after Steven Wise,
a lawyer for the NhRP, argued the case in court, comparing Hercules and Leos confinement to slavery, the involuntary detention of people with mental illnesses and imprisonment.
But an assistant attorney general, representing the state university system, argued that chimpanzees are not entitled to legal personhood rights because they could not fulfill the responsibilities of people in society.
Wise presented hundreds of pages of expert opinions from academics, zoologists, biologists and others he said supported the claim that cognitively, chimpanzeesalong with dolphins, bonobos, orangutans and elephants
are advanced species, the Associated Press reported.
Justice Jaffe didnt shut the door on a future ruling. "Efforts to extend legal rights to chimpanzees are...understandable; some day they may even succeed," she wrote in a 33-page decision. "For now, however, given the precedent to which I am bound, it is hereby ordered, that the petition for a writ of habeas corpus is denied and the proceeding is dismissed."
In a statement, the NhRP said it would appeal the ruling but pointed out that Jaffe said in her ruling that "the parameters of legal personhood have been and will continue to be discussed and debated by legal theorists, commentators, and courts and will not be focused on semantics or biology, even philosophy, but on the proper allocation of rights under the law, asking, in effect, who counts under our law.
The ruling is only a minor setback, according to the Discovery Institute's Smith, who said that "animal personalizers" are on a roll.
"An Argentinean judge has declared an orangutan to be a 'person,' and granted a writ of habeas corpus in the animal's name, forcing the ape to be removed from a zoo. New Zealand has declared a river to be a person with 'rights,'" he said.
"This threat to the unique dignity and sanctity of human life must be taken seriously and combatted with the greatest vigor in our parliaments, legislatures, courts, and organs of public opinion," Smith warned. "If we elevate animals and nature to the status of humans, we are really reducing us to the status of animals. If that is how we define ourselves, that is precisely how we will act."
Smith finds it ironic that attempts to personalize animals and nature comes at a time when "concerted efforts are under way in bioethics and law to depersonalize some people, the unborn, people with profound disabilities, etc. These so-called human non-persons are seen as natural resources, to be harvested and experimented onas we have seen in the USA with Planned Parenthood."
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: animalwhackos; chimps; court; humans; ny; ruling
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1
posted on
08/01/2015 3:02:56 PM PDT
by
NYer
To: Tax-chick; GregB; SumProVita; narses; bboop; SevenofNine; Ronaldus Magnus; tiki; Salvation; ...
2
posted on
08/01/2015 3:03:20 PM PDT
by
NYer
(Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy them. Mt 6:19)
To: NYer
Whew! Then it’s still a crime to kill their fetuses.
That was close...
3
posted on
08/01/2015 3:03:42 PM PDT
by
DoughtyOne
(Moving day: June 16th, 2015. LEFT >>>HOPE and CHANGE>>> RIGHT / [DOPE and STRANGE stay home].)
To: NYer
Well, they do have more sense and work a heck of a lot harder than about 47% of the people currently living in this country. I’d say that it’s a gray area.
4
posted on
08/01/2015 3:10:52 PM PDT
by
FlingWingFlyer
(Stop the DemocRATS' War On Babies! Vote conservative.)
To: NYer
A rare act of sanity... considering recent rulings.
5
posted on
08/01/2015 3:11:23 PM PDT
by
aquila48
To: NYer
Chimps are extremely violent and vicious.
6
posted on
08/01/2015 3:11:56 PM PDT
by
trisham
(Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
To: NYer
I’m not so sure... we seem to have elected a lot of apes to Congress
7
posted on
08/01/2015 3:12:59 PM PDT
by
The Great RJ
(“Socialists are happy until they run out of other people's money.” Margaret Thatcher)
To: NYer
Next step: judge declares politicians not human, either”
To: NYer
I no speak Chimpanzee. Still it won’t be long until i will be able to marry one.
9
posted on
08/01/2015 3:16:37 PM PDT
by
Leep
(Still living in what remains of 'God's Country'.)
To: NYer
hummmm....was someone going to marry one of them or something?????
10
posted on
08/01/2015 3:16:38 PM PDT
by
HarleyLady27
(Trump/Cruz or Cruz/Trump....Make America Great Again....)
To: NYer
Good. If he denies chimps are “persons” we’re a judgement away from ruling democrats are not “persons”. At least not intelligent ones.
11
posted on
08/01/2015 3:16:53 PM PDT
by
Caipirabob
(Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
To: NYer
They are not human, but what`s wrong with looking after animals, making them happy, giving them water, making sure they have shade from the heat.and making sure they are not living in horror or terror.
Proverbs 12:10 - A righteous man cares for the needs of his ...
www.biblestudytools.com/proverbs/12-10-compare.html
A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the ... Proverbs 12:10 (KJV) A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the
To: trisham
13
posted on
08/01/2015 3:17:32 PM PDT
by
Caipirabob
(Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
To: NYer
This will only stop when the liberals discover that chimpanzees support Republicans.
14
posted on
08/01/2015 3:17:34 PM PDT
by
Cowboy Bob
(Isn't it funny that Socialists never want to share their own money?)
To: NYer
" But an assistant attorney general, representing the state university system, argued that chimpanzees are not entitled to legal personhood rights because they could not fulfill the responsibilities of people in society. " How soon do we all think it will be when the elderly and inform are regarded in that same way? Notice the word "society" in there?
We keep you alive to serve this ship: row well, and live."
15
posted on
08/01/2015 3:18:09 PM PDT
by
Grateful2God
(Those who smile like nothing's wrong are fighting a battle you know nothing about. -Thomas More)
To: NYer
A congress of elected Baboons?
16
posted on
08/01/2015 3:19:32 PM PDT
by
Steamburg
(Other people's money is the only language a politician respects)
To: NYer
17
posted on
08/01/2015 3:19:57 PM PDT
by
GeronL
To: NYer
If only the chimp could talk it would say it was a human female and deserved recognition. I’m sure that all liberals would agree.
18
posted on
08/01/2015 3:20:19 PM PDT
by
Vic S
To: Chauncey Uppercrust; NYer
"...but what`s wrong with looking after animals, making them happy, giving them water, making sure they have shade from the heat.and making sure they are not living in horror or terror." I don't think anybody's disputing that.
19
posted on
08/01/2015 3:21:30 PM PDT
by
Mrs. Don-o
("How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice. "You must be" said the Cat,"or you wouldn't have come here.")
To: Caipirabob
20
posted on
08/01/2015 3:22:54 PM PDT
by
trisham
(Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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