14Apr 2022 by Post

Ecuador’s Highest Court Grants Rights to Wild Animals

animal rights, animals, bacteria, Climate News, Congress, courts, Culture & Ethics, deer, ecosystems, Ecuador, elephant, fish, forests, geological features, germs, habeas corpus, human exceptionalism, individual animals, insects, Laws, Life Sciences, nature right, New York State, plants, rivers, Switzerland, viruses, water
Nature rights apply to individual animals. And, one would assume, to be consistent, to individual plants, insects, water, and (what the hell) germs too. Source
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22Mar 2020 by Post

In Argentina, Doctor Sentenced to Prison for Refusing to Terminate Pregnancy

abortion, adoption, animal personhood, ape, Argentina, BioEdge, bioethics, Culture & Ethics, doctor, gynecology, habeas corpus, Hippocratic Oath, human exceptionalism, human life, Leandro Rodriguez Lastra, legal impossibility, medical conscience, Medicine, moral impossibility, orangutan, pregnancy, rape, Rodríguez Lastra, Sweden, zoo
In Sweden, midwives can be fired and deemed unemployable for refusing abortion. In Ontario, Canada, doctors can face professional discipline for refusing to administer (or refer for) euthanasia. Ditto to refusing an abortion in Victoria, Australia. In California, a Catholic hospital is being sued — with the explicit blessing of the courts — for refusing to allow a transgender hysterectomy. But now in Argentina, the right to obtain an abortion has been declared so fundamental that an objecting M.D. can be held criminally culpable for refusing to terminate a pregnancy. An Impossibility? That would seem to be a moral and legal impossibility. But Argentina just elevated the “medical conscience” controversy to a whole new level of concern — from the potential of not “only” having one’s professional license revoked, but…
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29Feb 2020 by Post

Judge Wishes She Could Rule Elephant a “Person”

Alison Y. Tuitt, animal personhood, animal rights, animal welfare, beach sand, Bronx Zoo, chimpanzee, Court of Appeals, Culture & Ethics, elephant, elephant sanctuary, Eugene M. Fahey, financial penalties, habeas corpus, Happy, human exceptionalism, judge, New York Supreme Court, Nonhuman Rights Project, sentience, trial court
Having failed to have a court declare chimpanzees to be persons entitled to habeas corpus protection, the Nonhuman Rights Project next tried the same thing with an elephant named Happy, that — not who — is held in her own pen at the Bronx Zoo due to behavioral conflicts with other elephants. This case also just failed. But before we applaud and say, “Well, of course,” it is clear that New York Supreme Court (the name of the trial court in that state) Justice Alison Y. Tuitt only dismissed the case because she felt bound by precedent. Happy to Meet You Justice Tuitt clearly wanted to declare Happy a “person.” Indeed, she took the time to quote from a non-binding statement in the above-referenced chimpanzee case by Court of Appeals…
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