Re: Extropians and animal rights

Randall Randall (wolfkin@freedomspace.net)
Sat, 9 Jan 1999 18:13:23 -0500

On Sat, 09 Jan 1999, Samael tempted me with this question:
>The majority of extropians on this list are in favour of perfect human
>inviolability (ie people never have the right to affect another person
>without their permission - except in self defence).

Yes, I'd agree with that.

>I'd be interested to hear peoples opinions on the rights of animals. Do you
>believe that animals have no rights and can be ignored, that animals have a
>sliding scale of rights based upon their intelligence, or some other system?

I would say that entities are either persons or property, and that the difference is that persons choose to be responsible. I don't have any problem with a sliding scale, but it should be an individual decision, not imposed from outside. That is, if the parent or owner is willing to agree to the demand, a child or pet should be able to insist that he, she, or it is *not* eating that stuff, but continue to be irresponsible (i.e. not a person, legally) in other ways.

--
Wolfkin.
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