Human Rights for Apes?

http://www.greatapeproject.org ^ | March 22, 2007 | Michele L. Stumpe

[Maelstorm]

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An international movement is growing to grant human rights and "personhood" to apes.

In Austria, judges must decide whether a British woman should become legal guardian of a chimpanzee, and in Spain, members of parliament are being urged to grant apes the right to life, freedom and protection from torture, reports BBC News magazine.

Ian Redmond of the U.N.'s Great Apes Survival Project contends apes are special because they are so closely related to humans – chimpanzees and bonobos, for example, differ by only 1 percent of DNA.

Redmond argues the great apes have the human quality of self-awareness and the ability to reason.

"Show a gibbon a mirror and the reaction suggests he or she thinks the reflection is another gibbon," he said. "But all the great apes have passed the 'mirror self-recognition' test and soon begin checking their teeth or examining parts of their body they couldn't see without the mirror. This self-awareness surely suggests that they know they exist."

Zoologist Charlotte Uhlenbroek argues apes have a similar lifespan to humans and form lifelong family bonds in which they display emotions that could be described as love, anxiety, fear, jealousy and trauma.

"If I was an alien from Mars and looked at human society and a society of apes then in terms of the emotional life I would see no distinct difference, although we live very different lives because of language and technology, "Uhlenbroek said.

Redmond asserts apes need protection, noting, for example, an international trade ban is flouted in Africa and South-East Asia, where mothers are shot and their infants shipped off as pets, circus performers or lab animals.


Bonobo participates in musical performances with musicians (Photo: Great Ape Trust of Iowa

The British woman who wants to adopt a chimpanzee, Paula Stibbe, says the animal was abducted from its family tribe in West Africa 25 years ago. It now lives in an animal sanctuary that is about to close, and she wants to prevent it from being sold to a zoo by persuading a court to grant the same protection as a child.

Members of Parliament in Spain are being asked to support legislation endorsed by the international organization Great Ape Project, which advocates a United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Great Apes that would confer basic legal rights on great apes. The law would be based on the assertion apes deserve a right to life, freedom and protection from torture.

But Steve Jones, professor of genetics at University of London, maintains human rights cannot be imposed on animals.

"Where do you stop? It seems to be that being human is unique and nothing to do with biology," he said. "Say that apes share 98 percent of human DNA and therefore should have 98 percent of human rights. Well mice share 90 percent of human DNA. Should they get 90 percent of human rights? And plants have more DNA than humans."

Jones argues that bestowing rights based on criteria invented by one group is itself a breach of human rights, similar to what the Nazis did in the Holocaust.

"Rights and responsibilities go together and I've yet to see a chimp imprisoned for stealing a banana because they don't have a moral sense of what's right and wrong," he said. "To give them rights is to give them something without asking for anything in return."

[Maelstorm]

The idea that humans and apes share 98-99% of the same DNA is misleading if not an outright lie repeated by individuals who I believe have an obscene stake in blurring the uniqueness of humanity to achieve a political and social end.

Let us first look at the total number of nucleotide differences just in gene encoding areas which is enormous at greater than 40 million out of approximately 3 billion gene encoding nucleotides. It is a small percentage but imagine two computer programs with 40 million changes and you will have a clearer picture of the significance these differences could make. This alone is enough to demonstrate how misleading using percentages is when dealing with DNA. It tells you very little real information while leaving what is a false impression of the magnitude of difference between apes and man and other animals.

When we go one step further and look at how the 98%-99% number is arrived we find that this is accomplished by first throwing away the junk DNA which incidentally accounts for nearly 95% of genetic information. It has in the past been assumed that this DNA is not useful because it is non-encoding and does not code for genes. This has been found not to be the case.

Click to view Junk DNA

Click to view Ape vs. Man: Volatile DNA?

There is also one key difference which is the Chromosome difference. Humans have 46 Chromosomes and Apes have 48. This is thought to be the result of a fusion of two smaller chromosomes.

Overall the most significant thing is that gene expression in humans and apes is highly different. The methlyation of cytosine bases is one such epigenetic way that gene expression is altered.

Click to Read Comparative Analysis of Gene-Expression Patterns

Click to Read Human Understanding

Click to Read Of Mice and Men"

[atomic conspiracy]

I posted this warning at several boards a couple of years ago but this version was the most highly evolved :

Monkey uprising overruns Bangladeshi town.

Monkeys terrorize Indian government.

Monkeys invade Indian embassy in Nepal. (An alliance with Maoist rebels?)

There is mounting evidence that monkeys and their relatives are plotting to overthrow human civilization, almost certainly in collusion with the great apes. That's right, you think they are cute hairy little bare-**s creatures, but don't let the sly beasts fool you!

At some point in the year 2008, the Moon will align with (something or other) and that will cause a great awakening in the conciousness of every ape, monkey, and baboon... spider monkeys and lemurs, too. Then the little monsters are going to rip and sack their way through the unsuspecting nations of the Earth.

Many leading humans have been aware of this simian conspiracy for some time. Why do you think experienced ape-fighter Charlton Heston was named to lead the NRA a few years ago? Heston is out of the loop now, but others have taken his place in preparing our resistance. Stock up on guns, ammo, and bananas!

The conspiracy seems concentrated in the Indian subcontinent. An attempt to gain control of Indian nuclear weapons at an early stage? Can we be sure that all of our posters are loyal humans? Couldn't one or more of them be the proverbial monkey pecking at a keyboard, sent here to spy out the scientifically concious resistance?

(Yes, I know that apes are not monkeys, but the great apes have long been suspected of masterminding the anti-human conspiracy.)

I will continue to raise the alarm about this gorilla warfare conspiracy, despite protests from simian-citizens groups.

[CounterCounterCulture]

An international movement is growing to grant human rights and "personhood" to apes... to grant apes the right to life, freedom and protection from torture... apes are special because they are so closely related to humans

Of course preborn humans are 100% related to born humans, yet they aren't granted this thing called "personhood" by the pro-aborts.

[ASA Vet]

Human are Apes....We've gone though this many times on FR.

[betsyross1776]

Why not in the USA we gave the radical monkey democrats rights why not make it official. No difference.

[calljack]

Only if we give ape rights to humans.
If a male ape wants to have sex with a female he does.
If a male ape wants to kill another male ape he does.
If he wants to kill his young he does.
Can I have Ape rights.

[Popman]

Just as soon as the great apes can cut my yard, trim my bushes, clean my pool, blow my leaves and learn Spanish, they can have human rights

Heck, even let them vote, too.

[SandRat]

1) Apes already have rights, they are called Democrats in the US House and Senate.

2) As to man coming from apes here is the ape's answer to if that is true and if they want to join us.

[Maelstorm]

Funny. I think that there is a great mythology in the modern world that has attempted to pull man down to the lowest common denominator. The great ape research is a good example. Any rational person can readily identify the clear differences between apes and humans. One very important difference being that most great apes could kill a human with their bare hands without much thought to it. Modern liberalism being what it is can only exist as an effective alternative when the very moral imperative of humanity is called into question.

[LiteKeeper]

Humans are not apes; apes are not humans.

[DaveyB]

Person-hood to apes but not to babies who live in the womb!

[Brilliant]

Seems like they ought to be entitled to medicare and social security.

[DaveyB]

Seems like they ought to be entitled to medicare and social security.

Only if they got here illegally!

[pcottraux]

Oh, great...you mean to tell me the posters at DU are going to have rights now?

[Ghengis]

Oh, great...you mean to tell me the posters at DU are going to have rights now?

Yes. And this would also solidify Rosie's seat on The View

[Jason_b]

"Heck, even let them vote, too."

They'll be more likely to vote democrat. Next, Bank of America will offer them credit cards.

They will be able to get 0 percent down mortgages.

The IRS will want to tax them.

[Jason_b]

"...United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Great Apes that would confer basic legal rights on great apes. "

Yet another reason to get the UN out of the US and the US out of the UN. Is this what our dues taxes are going to pay for?

[383rr]

IT'A MADHOUSE, A MADHOUSE~!!!!

[isrul]

Soon, the movement to legalize marriage between species.

[Verginius Rufus]

Has the Primate of England weighed in on this issue?

If they give human rights to apes, where does it end? Do monkeys get ape rights, and lemurs monkey rights, and on down the line?