Rights for Apes

Meanwhile, across the pond, the Spanish Parliament has passed a resolution extending basic human rights to our nearest evolutionary relatives, the great apes. The article, in Reuters, notes:

Parliament's environmental committee approved resolutions urging Spain to comply with the Great Apes Project, devised by scientists and philosophers who say our closest genetic relatives deserve rights hitherto limited to humans.

"This is a historic day in the struggle for animal rights and in defense of our evolutionary comrades, which will doubtless go down in the history of humanity," said Pedro Pozas, Spanish director of the Great Apes Project.

Interesting. Here, there is controversy over whether apes are related to us. Over there, no such controversy exists, only how we should treat our nearest relatives.