Klobmentum Mutilated Herself
Phlorescent Leech
Jr. Member
Posts: 880
Political Matrix E: -4.39, S: -8.35
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« on: May 01, 2022, 04:00:11 PM » |
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Nonhuman Great Apes are almost genetically identical to humans, with bonobos and chimpanzees sharing almost 99% of DNA in common with humans; the difference between our DNA and nonhuman Great Ape DNA is smaller than the difference between nonhuman Great Ape DNA and the DNA of non-ape primates. Great apes live a lifestyle and structure their societies almost identically to the way that Homo sapiens have lived for the vast majority of our existence, to say nothing of our hominin ancestors. Just about everything that we think of as important to personhood which separates us from the 'filthy animals' - sentience, language, culture, tool-use, intelligence, self-conception, having thumbs and looking like a human - is practiced every day not only by the Great Apes, but by the lesser apes and the monkeys. While apes have their own languages, verbal and nonverbal, that are incredibly complex and far better measures of their intelligence than the ability to learn human languages, it is a fact that apes are capable of learning human languages as well, namely American Sign Language. They even look a lot like humans.
While scientists and environmentalists have argued for the recognition of Great Ape personhood for decades, such calls have not caught on with the general public. However, many swaths of Americans, perhaps even a majority, recognize unborn fetuses as people. Many Atlas posters argue that human fetuses are people.
Who is more of a person: nonhuman Great Apes, or unborn human fetuses? And if you argue an unborn human fetus is a person and don't recognize the personhood of apes who are already born, explain why you draw that distinction.
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