animals can only be considered human if humans were to be downgraded
we are talking about legal personhood, because that is the nexus through which human legal rights & social responsibility come into play
animals are protected legally in several ways from human acts of abuse, so I am not sure what we're discussing other than expanding legal codified language to include our personal preferences
okay, animals aren't considered humans. they're considered nonhuman people.
Human is a short way of saying Homo Sapiens. That is a specific species of hominids, which is a subsection of Mammalia, which is in Animalia, with is in Multicellular Organisms etc etc etc.
This is an important distinction because it re-frames the question. It is on the same spectrum of whether citizens and residents should be given the same rights, or whether white people and non-white people should be given the same rights. You may think animals aren't people, but others disagree. There is no reason to not consider animals people. Intelligence or brain size or whatever else is arbitrary.
What rights belong exclusively to humans and what rights belong exclusively to people and whether the two should be separate is an important ethical question.
animals can only be considered human if humans were to be downgraded
we are talking about legal personhood, because that is the nexus through which human legal rights & social responsibility come into play
animals are protected legally in several ways from human acts of abuse, so I am not sure what we're discussing other than expanding legal codified language to include our personal preferences
okay, animals aren't considered humans. they're considered nonhuman people.
Human is a short way of saying Homo Sapiens. That is a specific species of hominids, which is a subsection of Mammalia, which is in Animalia, with is in Multicellular Organisms etc etc etc.
This is an important distinction because it re-frames the question. It is on the same spectrum of whether citizens and residents should be given the same rights, or whether white people and non-white people should be given the same rights. You may think animals aren't people, but others disagree. There is no reason to not consider animals people. Intelligence or brain size or whatever else is arbitrary.
What rights belong exclusively to humans and what rights belong exclusively to people and whether the two should be separate is an important ethical question.