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Correspondence
Nature 416, 785 (25 April 2002) | doi:10.1038/416785a
'Practical autonomy' entitles some animals to rights
Steve Wise1
- Center for the Expansion of Fundamental Rights, Inc., 896 Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
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Abstract
Basic rights stem from the ability to desire, to act intentionally and to have a sense of self.
In your Opinion article "Rights, wrongs and ignorance" (Nature 416, 351; 2002), you urge scientists and lawyers to challenge the arguments for the basic rights of great apes and other non-human animals that I made in my books Rattling the Cage (Profile Books/Perseus; 2000) and the forthcoming Drawing the Line (Perseus; 2002). You say that some cognitive scientists will challenge my interpretation of the scientific evidence.
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