Should Chimps Be Allowed Some Basic Human Rights As Well

If chimpanzees pursue human rights, should we permit it for them? If it happens, should we redefine the meaning of human? It seems to be a joke, but I'm asking seriously.

Besides the fact that chimpanzee DNA is very close to Human DNA, the studies have indicated that they have the intelligence of a young child. They can understand and learn our languages, learn and use sign language, and communicate recognizing symbols on computers. They have the same emotions, contract most of the same diseases as we do, and have long term memories. Studies have been made in the wild, in laboratories, in sanctuaries etc that have proven more and more how they suffer just like humans in the same ways when abused. Behavior studies have gone on with captive chimps for years to illustrate stress behaviors that are identical to humans.Those that have spent years caring for chimps can tell you that they are just like people except they are much stronger in terms of their bodies, much faster in movement and can watch tv and recognize and follow children’s programing. They cannot talk lacking a voice box but their guttural sounds and their gestures convey as much as our language although with less sophistication.Each chimpanzee is an individual, they are all different not only facially and physically, but each has a unique distinct personality like humans. They also display close familial bonds especially mothers with their new borns and young.go to www.centerforgreatapes.org to read about how each chimp has a story, and how caring the caretakers are in caring and understanding the chimp residents there.Once you have spent anytime with chimps and gotten to know them and have communicated with them, you would appreciate how of all animals they deserve to have “person” rights that protect them from being abused whether in labs, entertainment training, or pet ownership.At the moment the only category in which they are legally placed is “property” just like slaves were property in history.

If somehow a chimp human hybrid was made would it be entitled to human rights? Also, would that answer depend on how intelligent it was?

First of all, it would be immoral to do this where the chimp has their intelligence brought up close to or equal to Human intelligence before we had the technology to do it correctly. Not that it won’t be done anyway. If it is done there the actual intelligence of the chimp would greatly matter and if it was able to achieve the intelligence of low IQ adult Human, which might be the same as a high IQ teen or even preteen, but demonstrating the capacity to function as an adult Human… then there would be a distinct chance the courts would grant the chimp rights which were either equal to or close to equal to that of Humans.However, there would be many Humans that would consider it an abomination and seek to destroy it or at least keep it caged like an animal, and certainly not give it the same rights as Humans.Now, this will change in one or more centuries as Humans evolve into Pure Minds which can move between supportive technological structures and be able to wear and change like clothing “custom designed cybernetic bodies made of nanomachines”. Once we achieve that there will be an argument that to at least not give chimpanzees the choice of also evolving into a Pure Mind would be cruel. But, in this case, if a chimp was evolved into a Pure Mind, it would gain the capacity to learn as we will be able to in that future time and to grown to be our equal.

Should chimpanzees have civil rights?

The moment they as a species can understand the concept of having rights, can articulate a demand for rights, and can oust mankind from their positions as the custodians of planet Earth, sure.Rights are assumed and conferred by power and authority. Humans have dominion over all lesser animals because they alone can either preserve or destroy the Earth, including all animal life.

how would you go about giving human rights to animals?

I think what you mean by "human rights" are the rights afforded to legal persons. You might want to check out the work of animal activist lawyer Steven Wise. He runs this organization: http://www.nonhumanrightsproject.... He gave a nice TED talk in Vancouver recently summarizing his project: http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_....While I'm not sure I completely agree with granting full scale personhood to all animals since I'm not convinced they can be moral agents and held responsible for moral agency, the approach taken by Steven Wise is the correct one I think. It's a legal process which would be executed in stages, very similar to the legal process which granted blacks the legal status of personhood as a step towards abolishing slavery and gaining equal legal rights, responsibilities and priveledges in America.First, you tackle the false assumptions made about our closest related species, in our case, chimps and bonobos. They need to be shown that they have the same attributes and facilities which we consider minimally warrant the legal status of personhood in humans. Once that has been decided in favour of the chimps and bonobos, they will essentially gain the "human rights" you are asking about. If successful, you could move on to the next closest related species and so on. Legal and political change in democracies tends to be slow and incremental, so your best strategy is to plan out the smallest steps toward your end goal. Those are the easiest to execute.