Legal protection is not and should not be related to intelligens. How about mentally retarded people? I have also heard people defend the eating of animals with

Legal protection is not and should not be related to intelligens. How about mentally retarded people? I have also heard people defend the eating of animals with that we are so much more intelligent. Funny thing is, we would not be accepting of a superintelligent alien consuming humans. We simply protect things that are sufficiently alike us. The line we draw for this protection is arbitrary and has changed throughout history.