Euro Cup Victory Inspires Ape Rights Movement

Ooh this is neat. Spain's Parliament is working on legislation to guarantee the right to life of great apes. What I'm about to say may offend some people (an ex of mine once locked herself in a room -- that was her thing though -- and wouldn't talk to me until I pretended to be sorry about telling her the following anecdote).

My older brother Raphael has very severe down's syndrome and very little in the way of mental capacity and communication ability. He doesn't live with us because he requires round-the-clock care and isn't capable of developing much of a relationship with anyone he isn't in constant contact with. Once when I was a curious little kid I read that chimpanzees were comparable to human four-year-olds in certain areas of cognition. So, I asked a family member if they had at least an equal right to life as Raphael whose cognitive abilities are probably closer to those of a baby.

The response I got was "not to mention, a chimpanzee can survive in the wild."

So I certainly am happy to hear this news coming out of Spain. I won't get into whether or not a zygote is 'life' or not. But if you believe it is, well you shouldn't believe in human behaviors that threaten lives of relatively the same value for the sake of diamonds or big macs or whatever. In the zygote case of course, potential complicates the argument whereas my brother has pretty much reached his. Have I just opened a can of worms?