[lbo-talk] Invertebrate tool use

[Chris Doss]

Let me turn the argument around. If some nonhuman organism (say, a Neanderthal or a Betelgeusean Plant Man) were to have human-level cognitive powers, most people would consider killing it to be murder, wouldn't they?

----- Original Message ----
From: "farmelantj at juno.com" <farmelantj at juno.com>
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Sent: Tue, December 15, 2009 8:55:03 PM
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Invertebrate tool use

All that might be true but would
still be irrelevant to the argument
because if we did have (and I am
sure some exist) of people who are
so incapacitated that they have less
cognitive capacity than other non-human
mammals, we would still not regard
it to be morally permissible to treat
those persons the way we would treat
a horse or a cow.

Jim F.