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Austrian Court to Decide if Chimpanzee is Deserving of “Human Status”

Animal rights activist judge stalls court proceedings to determine asylum status of chimp

By Meg Jalsevac
VIENNA, April 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Animal rights activists and leading experts in several biological fields including primatology and anthropology are joining forces to uphold a case going before an Austrian court which seeks a declaration of ‘human status’ for  a 26 year old chimpanzee. 

According to media reports, the chimpanzee known as Hiasl was barely one year old in 1982 when he was illegally smuggled out of his birth place of Sierra Leone and into Austria to be used, along with several other chimps, for AIDS and hepatitis research at a laboratory near Vienna.  Customs officials discovered Hiasl and rerouted him to an animal sanctuary where he resided until this year. 

The sanctuary now faces bankruptcy and Hiasl’s future is once again uncertain with the possibility that he may be shipped to the original lab that he was destined for. 

Spearheaded by the efforts of Dr. Martin Balluch, president of Austria’s animal rights organization, activists are campaigning to protect Hiasl from possibly being sent back to the lab by working to have a legal guardian appointed over him.  However, since only humans have the right to a legal guardian, they must first convince the court that the chimpanzee, is in fact, ‘human’. 

And that is exactly what they intend to do.  With the help of testimony from individuals like ‘primate rights’ activist, Jane Goodall and wild chimp expert Volker Sommer, Hiasl’s entourage intends to argue several points to demonstrate his humanity and his right to the subsequent privileges.

Some of the arguments that they intend to use include the argument that a chimpanzee’s DNA is approximately 97% akin to human DNA.  They will argue that recent research shows that primates have been known to hunt with home-made spears.  The fact that Hiasl can recognize himself in the mirror and plays hide-and-seek with sanctuary visitors will also be used as proof of his humanity.

Acting within a similar mindset in 1999, New Zealand declared apes - and all the subspecies of primates – ‘non-human huminoids’ thereby granting them immunity from maltreatment, slavery, torture, death and extinction.

Evolutionary enthusiast and professor at University College London, Sommer claims, “It's untenable to talk of dividing humans and humanoid apes because there are no clear-cut criteria - neither biological, nor mental, nor social.”

A British woman named Paula Stibbe has applied to be Hiasl’s legal guardian.  She said, “He is a colourful character with lots of energy. The least we can do for him is give him ... a future in society.”

The hearing is currently stalled while the judge, Barbara Bartl, an animal rights supporter herself, determines if the claims of ‘asylum status’ for the ape have been legitimately established. 

The implications of this case will be wide-spread and the unprecedented proceedings and subsequent verdict will be closely monitored around the globe.

Pro-life observers note the irony that chimps may be declared “human” while unborn real humans are denied legal human status and thereby over 50 million are killed each year, even up to full term. Infanticide is also common in certain nations and often not punished. In China, government agents carry out brutal killings of newborns of parents who were not authorized to have another child.

There are calls for law changes in the West to legally declare defective newborn humans as non-human so they may be killed. Princeton University philosopher Peter Singer is an animal rights advocate who has singled out "more conservative mainstream fundamentalist views" that "want to make a huge gulf between humans and animals" -- a form of discrimination he calls "speciesism." Singer has advocated that parents be given the right to kill their defective newborns.

Princeton Professor Singer: And I repeat, I would kill Disabled Infants
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/sep/06091204.html

CHRISTIANITY DISCRIMINATES AGAINST ANIMALS: PETER SINGER
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/jul/02070212.html

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