Poll: Do non-humans deserve human rights?

[Cama Zots]

This is the District-9 question. Do non-humans deserve human rights? The question applies to extra-terrestrial species, not other species native to Earth.
What do you think?

I personally think it would be wrong to impose human moral standards and rights on a species that is utterly alien. As demonstrated by Orson Scott Card in Speaker for the Dead. The Piggies and the Fromics (buggers) have completely different views on life and death and personal rights. Piggies ritualistically kill themselves to reproduce, and they killed humans because they believed the same was true for us. The right to be killed by a close friend is very dear to them. The same is not true for humans.

 

[Joshimodo]

No.

Why? Because they aren't human.

If this were a District 9 world, it'd be a different story. Perhaps "self-aware rights" or something.

 

[TheNumber1Zero]

hmm...well,they are not human...only if we don't get there rights on their world,gotta seem fair so we don't look like the bad guy-species-thing whatever

 

[Pandalisk]

Human Rights... its in the Name for fucks sake.
did i just loosly quote al murray? Oh yeah!.

 

[TaborMallory]

Are.. bwh.. huh?? Am I reading this right?

The human moral system is unique to itself. What's evil with so-and-so could be a polar opposite for something else. Also, humans can really fuck up their priorities pretty badly sometimes (see: PETA).

 

[Hoxton]

Are you actually trying to pull ethics out of sci-fi?
You're a scientologist or something?

 

[metagaia]

Aliens deserve alien rights, or sentient rights, or whatever it is they are.

Being less glib, unless they choose to impose themselves on us (colonising our planet etc) then we have no moral right to impose our morals on theirs.

Of course we have to hope that their morals say the same thing

 

[El Poncho]

No they should be given animal rights, they have the right to live happy lives until we kill them for food

 

[Jedoro]

I think that since they would be sentient, they deserve to be treated as equals, but our rights and morals systems are going to conflict.

 

[Jay Cee]

In all honesty this is a philosophical debate I've previously pondered over, and I think it's all about intelligence.

If some kind of mutual respect is found between species then they are sure to find some form of common ground, scientific or not.

It's of course dependent on the attitude said extra-terrestrials.

 

[Destal]

Short answer no.

Long answer, Honestly I couldn't care less what they did as long as it didn't impede us or hurt us in anyway.

 

[Berethond]

It kind of doesn't matter.
Seeing as there are none.
(Sentient non-humans, I mean.)
(Well, at least not sentient in the way we are...)

 

[electric_warrior]

no, they deserve rights, but not human rights.
i mean do snails really need freedom of expression?
maybe if a chimp developed provable sapience, an exception could be made, but otherwise no

 

[historybuff]

I always thought dogs should be given the right to vote.

 

[walls of cetepedes]

All I have to say can be summed up in this picture:

Spoiler

Anyway...

No, they do not deserve human rights.

No siree bob.

 

[GothmogII]

It kind of doesn't matter.
Seeing as there are none.
(Sentient non-humans, I mean.)
(Well, at least not sentient in the way we are...)

That we know of. At present.

 

[Hoxton]

I always thought dogs should be given the right to vote.

I second and third that, i would also like to add that iguanas has rights tooo boohoo hoo hooo

 

[Poke_Freak]

I think they would deserve the chance to show and explain their culture, without humans deciding (based on their views) whether's is right or wrong. I agree that trying to judge them by human standards is as stupid as trying breed crabs in the same way you'd plant an apple orchard.
They're two completely different and unrelated things, so you have to look at them in completely different ways.
(I'm also reminded of.. I think it was an episode of Star Trek or something. Anyway, some humans and aliens were having exactly that discussion, with the alien commenting "HUMAN rights? The very phrase is racist".)
So yeah, to make that work out you'd have to exchange "human rights" for "universal rights" based around the fact that cultures that have evolved far away from each other, with no previous communication, will most likely be very different.

But I do think that they deserve the same basic rights as any other species, as long as everyone involved agrees to not jump to conclusions until they know EVERYTHING about the whole story.

 

[annoyinglizardvoice]

Most humans don't deserve said rights

 

[Cama Zots]

Are you actually trying to pull ethics out of sci-fi?
You're a scientologist or something?

It's called social scifi (Blade Runner, Minority Report, Twilight Zone, Speaker for the Dead). It's different than hard-scifi (Ringworld, Star Trek, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) and high scifi (Halo, Mass Effect, G.I. Joe, Transformers). Social Scifi is less concerned about technology and setting and uses its setting to make statements about the human condition that, if said straight out, might be too controversial to say. Less like Star Wars, more like Animal Farm.