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Scientists say dolphins should be treated as 'non-human persons'
- grellas 17y agoMarino and Reiss will present their findings at a conference in San Diego, California, next month, concluding that the new evidence about dolphin intelligence makes it morally repugnant to mistreat them. It is morally repugnant to mistreat animals regardless of the intelligence of the animal and being a scientist has nothing to do with making such a judgment, since it is not a scientific judgment but an ethical one. Thus, the new-found evidence serves only to dramatize something these scientists want because of their philosophical predispositions, not because of their knowledge as scientists. If the logic suggested in the article were true, the converse might be up for consideration as well (e.g., that we can be cruel to deer because they are so dumb). Science and advocacy are distinct and should be kept that way. Scientists can be advocates but, when they are, they are not acting as scientists but as everyone else who seeks to further an ethical position they believe to be right.