Culture & Ethics Icon Culture & Ethics

From Animal Rights Activists, a Crazy Proposed Constitutional Amendment

The Humane Party, animal rights advocates, have published a proposed constitutional amendment. I quote it here not because I think it will be enacted, but because it illustrates the subversive belief system — the absolutist ideology — that drives “animal rights.” From the press release:

Full Text of the Abolition Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude of any sentient being shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress may, from time to time, refine the definition of ‘sentient being’ for the purposes of this article in accord with advances in science, except that in no event shall this definition be altered so as to exclude from this definition any species or individual organism that is, or would have been if existent, classified in the kingdom animalia as of the date of ratification of this article.

Section 3. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Realize that flies are sentient. Fish are sentient. Even oysters are sentient, which is why they make a pearl out of an irritating grain of sand.

If enacted, this would mean no cattle ranching, fish farms, animal research, zoos, or pets. After all, our dogs and cats are owned by us.

Animal rights isn’t about being nicer to animals. As the “Vegan Fox” explains above, it is about elevating all fauna to equal legal and moral status with humans. It’s a frightening illustration of our dissipated times that millions of people support this nihilism.

Cross-posted at Human Exceptionalism.

Wesley J. Smith

Chair and Senior Fellow, Center on Human Exceptionalism
Wesley J. Smith is Chair and Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism. Wesley is a contributor to National Review and is the author of 14 books, in recent years focusing on human dignity, liberty, and equality. Wesley has been recognized as one of America’s premier public intellectuals on bioethics by National Journal and has been honored by the Human Life Foundation as a “Great Defender of Life” for his work against suicide and euthanasia. Wesley’s most recent book is Culture of Death: The Age of “Do Harm” Medicine, a warning about the dangers to patients of the modern bioethics movement.

Share

Tags

natureThe War on HumansViews