Chimpanzee Personhood?
So far, the answer in American courts is a resounding “no.”
Earlier this week, the Nonhuman Rights Project lost its first three “chimp personhood” cases in New York.
CNN reports:
Three New York courts have rejected one group’s legal effort to grant captive chimpanzees in that state the same rights as a “legal person.”
The Nonhuman Rights Project filed three separate suits on behalf of four chimpanzees in New York state last week in a bid to secure for Tommy, Kiko, Hercules and Leo – all male chimps held in various parts of the state – the “right to bodily liberty.”
Unborn children – clearly human beings – do not yet enjoy the complete right to life granted to persons under the U.S. Constitution. They are treated as property when they are freely aborted at the request of their mothers. They have not been given the right to bodily integrity, protection, or liberty. The most basic right to life has been stripped from them, and their personhood continues to be violated.
Throughout our great nation, citizens must join together to fight for the weakest and most vulnerable humans among us.
Our first priority must be basic human rights for all humans. And unborn children must be protected before chimps.
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