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FOR CENTURIES,, the right to have everything that makes existence worthwhile-like freedom, safety from torture, and even life itself-has turned on whether the law classifies one as a person or a thing. Although some Jews once belonged to Pharaoh, Syrians to Nero, and African-Americans to George Washington, now every human is a person in the eyes of the law.
All nonhuman animals, on the other hand, are things with no rights. The law ignores them unless a person decides to do something to them, and then, in most cases, nothing can be done to help them. According to statistics collected annually by the Department of Agriculture, in the United States this year, tens of millions of animals are likely to be killed, sometimes painfully, during biomedical research; 10 billion more will be raised in factories so crowded that they're unable to turn around, and then killed for food. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and allied state agencies report that hundreds of millions will be shot by hunters or exploited in rodeos, circuses, and roadside zoos. And all of that is perfectly legal.
What accounts for the legal personhood of all of us and the legal thinghood of all of them? Judeo-Christian theologians sometimes argue that humans are made in the image of God. But that argument has been leaking since Gratian, the 12th-century Benedictine monk who is considered the father of canon law, made the same claim just for men in his Decretum. Few, if any, philosophers or judges today would argue that being human, all by itself, is sufficient for...