Monkeys should be considered persons.

1. I don"t believe you understood what I meant when producing those quotes. The point was to show as a human being I clearly possess THOUGHTS- "I don"t think a monkey could read this statement" and WISHES- "I wish this debate was over" Your quote referred to red-blooded machines incapable of Thoughts and wishes well as I demonstrated human beings clearly are capable of thoughts and wishes. This goes to show that he was speaking of non human animals. In regards to using yourself as an example for monkeys learning how to read and writes it is irrelevant unless you are in fact one of the animals you are arguing for. Yes, Human beings are capable of learning how to speak, write, AND understand foreign languages. NO non-human has ever done all three of these things. In general human beings are capable of this feat. Monkeys and other animals are incapable of learning several languages as you have. Monkeys do not possess the physical tools to understand several languages nor can they produce the sounds necessary to speak our language. No matter how hard you cant teach a monkey how to debate. 2. Debating the format of this debate in the last round is irrelevant to determining whether or not monkeys deserve to be considered persons. We agree monkeys and children can not defend themselves within a court of law. The difference between human children and monkeys really boils down to the fact that children although they have limited rights they will someday (hopefully) become rational adults. Monkeys on the other hand do not grow to be rational adult humans. Monkeys will never be able to understand after committing a crime why that crime was wrong, leaving prison useless. Yes, every human being is unique but what does that have to do with monkeys being considered persons? You ask "If you still don"t understand, then ask yourself, how do I interact and communicate with people from Vietnam?" Humans have many different ways of communicating with each other regardless of what language they speak. I don"t believe it is necessary for to list the many different ways I personally could communicate with a Vietnam but I will mention that you serve as a living example to this question. I could learn the Vietnamese language or they could learn English, because we are human beings and we are mentally capable of learning new languages. Just because you can"t speak another language and you are not used to his/her culture, it doesn"t mean they are not humans. Monkeys have their own too, just like every other culture in the world." Equality amongst humans was never in question. I agree that just because I cant speak another humans language doesn"t mean they are not a human and just because I cant speak a monkeys language it doesn"t mean they aren"t a monkey because they still are a monkey. MY ARGUMENT (1.) Humans are self-legislative and morally autonomous. (2.) Monkeys lack the capacity for free moral judgement along with the inability to intelligibly defend themselves within a court of law. (3.) The holders of rights must have the ability to comprehend rules of duty, governing all including themselves. (4.) The holder of rights must recognize possible conflicts between their self-interest and what is just. (5.) Monkeys do not have the ability to recognize possible conflicts between their self interest and what is just nor do they possess the ability to comprehend rules of duty, governing all including themselves. (6.) Humans cannot intelligibly reason with Monkeys. (7.) Most people can reason well enough to determine how to act so as to respect the basic rights of others, monkeys can not. (8.) Therefore, Monkeys can not be considered persons.