From Chimp to Person Revisited

My LifeNews.com column on animal rights vs. human rights has prompted some interesting e-mails.

In one I was told that "...from a strictly biological perspective animals are SUPERIOR to human beings." And that, "the next time you think yourself 'exceptional,' seriously consider how long you would survive on a planet devoid of all those creatures you distain so highly...a matter of mere weeks. On the other hand, if every human magically disappeared tomorrow, the Earth's animals would not only have cause for celebration...they could easily exist into infinity."

Somehow, the fact that our ecosystem depends on animals magically makes animals superior. Huh-- who would have guessed?

And then I received an e-mail that argued that this wasn't about animal superiority-- I misunderstood that moral equivalency is about animals and humans having the same right to life, etc. not necessarily that animals are superior. Philosophers apparently cannot agree on one thing that makes all humans superior and one thing that makes all animals inferior.

But the fact that only humans engage in the kind of self-flagellation evident in the first e-mail should say something about our superiority. A cat does not have the same right to life as an unborn baby. Because we are human, we are superior, period. Contrary to the implications of some of the ad hominem attacks, I am not a animal hater. I strongly believe that because of our superiority, we have an obligation to protect species, recycle, and in general do what we can to watch over what we have been given.

But bears, lions, chimps and dolphins do not wax long and hard on the purpose and meaning of life. They have not sent members of their species to the moon nor do they long to know more about the stars above their heads. They do not go around advocating the advancement of other species and they don't seek to better the world around them.

Not all humans are intellectually superior but our abilities as a species place us high above all other species on the planet.

There should be no question: we are unique.