From: Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Date: Fri Feb 04 2000 - 14:47:29 MST
Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
>... I am hesitant to grant rights to persons
>who I cannot at the same time hold responsible for their
>actions, and for whom "consent" is an unclear notion at best.
>Of course this same argument applies to children as well, and I
>would grant children some minimal rights--such as the right not
>to be battered or mutilated--that our laws barely recognize now.
I think the law is more flexible than you may realize; it does
make quite a few distinctions based on such criteria.
>And doing so is not without cost: medical research on chimps
>has made real differences in all our lives.
I suppose it must have made some difference for some lives,
but I have doubts that it is much difference for most lives.
What evidence would you offer for this claim?
Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu
Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
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