Some peoples' ethical imperative to be good to humans derives from the idea that humans are somehow special -- for instance, that consciousness makes humans abl

Some peoples' ethical imperative to be good to humans derives from the idea that humans are somehow special -- for instance, that consciousness makes humans able to experience pain in a more meaningful way. If you really believe that cows or chickens don't feel it the way we do, then that's at least a consistent stance. But in that case the presence of, say, a functioning brain would seem to bear on the question. Other peoples' ethical imperative to be good to humans derives from the mere fact that they are human. It doesn't matter whether the human in question has a brain, or even neurons -- the fact that they belong to our tribe is reason enough to treat them specially, differently from all other animals. That's just tribalism. I hesitate even to call it ethics.