Roy,
In an essay “Gaps in the Mind,” Richard Dawkins, noted evolutionist and the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University (whatever that is), has an interesting theory about evolution and human/animal rights.
Basically, Dawkins asserts that we shouldn’t divide animals up into discontinuous species. Since we’re all related, it’s hard for us to accurately delineate the moral worth of a human and an animal that isn’t too distant from us. Just because we can’t accurately trace the link, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.
Conclusion:
I have argued that the discontinuous gap between humans and ‘apes’ that we errect in our minds is regrettable. I have also argued that, in any case, the present position of the hallowed gap is arbitrary, the result of evolutionary accident. If the contingencies of survival and extinction had been different, the gap would be in a different place. Ethical prinicples that are based upon accidental caprice should not be respected as if cast in stone.
