Should Elephants Have Personhood?

What about other animals?

Hiya!

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but in my mind, everything from my dog Albert to the trees outside my window have their own personhood — a conscious awareness, a Self. I’ve held this opinion for as long as I can remember, though I don’t recall ever explicitly being taught this perspective.

In American culture, this idea may seem childish or naive. I’m often told that only humans can be a person. Yet, countries worldwide share my view along with plenty of sensible reasons behind granting personhood to nonhumans.

Let’s Begin with Elephants

You already know my newish-found love for elephants after I wrote about them in a January Curious Life newsletter. Well, I recently read a curiously-engaging article in the New Yorker which does a beautiful job exploring the story of granting personhood to Happy, the Asian elephant.

Happy lived in the Bronx Zoo and had been without any known issues for several years, but Steven Wise, the founder of the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), fought for Happy to be granted personhood under habeas corpus. This resulted in a New York court case presided by Justice Alison Y. Tuitt named Nonhuman Rights Project v. James Breheny in 2020.

According to the article, Happy’s habitat at the Bronx Zoo is pretty nice compared to many other zoos in the States and is about twice as large as most elephant enclosures in the U.S. There’s also no evidence Happy has suffered any mistreatment at the zoo — but does that mean the zoo is the best place for her?

From Wise’s perspective, if Happy was given personhood, she could be moved from the zoo to a sanctuary because she would have rights. Wise wasn’t the first to realize that according to the United States’ laws, all animals are treated as “things.” No different than your television or bed. Wise disagrees and has since worked tirelessly to convince the courts to grant personhood to at least some animals. Before Happy, Wise fought for chimpanzees to have rights without success. Given the intelligence levels we know elephants have, Wise hoped Happy had a better chance of persuading the courts.

Unfortunately, in the end, Steven Wise lost his case. On February 18, 2020, the courts ruled Happy does not have personhood. Justice Tuitt wrote:

“This Court agrees that Happy is more than just a legal thing, or property. She is an intelligent, autonomous being who should be treated with respect and dignity, and who may be entitled to liberty. Nonetheless, we are constrained by the caselaw to find that Happy is not a ‘person’ and is not being illegally imprisoned.”

Still, despite his lack of success, Wise made some valid points.

For instance, children, including infants, have rights yet can not bear their civic responsibilities. The same can be said about people in comas or who suffer from mental illness — they all have rights and deservingly so. Even more notably, Wise pointed out, the definition of “personhood” within U.S. law is already so elastic that corporations, ships, and even cities such as New York itself are all considered to have personhood.

I looked it up.

According to the United States Department of Justice Archives,

The term "person" is defined in 18 U.S.C. § 2510(6) to mean any individual person as well as natural and legal entities. It specifically includes United States and state agents. According to the legislative history, "(o)nly the governmental units themselves are excluded." S.Rep. No. 1097, 90th Cong., 2d Sess. 90 (1968).

If non-living, imaginary entities and ecosystems such as corporations are considered a person in the eyes of American law, then why not animals?

Darwin and the Mirror Test

The New Yorker article fully explores Darwin’s contributions to animal personhood, going all the way back to the year 1838. Meaning this debate has been going on for almost two centuries. But before we get into the details of Darwin’s journey, let’s pause for a moment.

I firmly believe the lessons we need to learn repeat themselves, and that we should pay closer attention to the subjects that continue to pop up throughout human history. It’s been 183 years since Darwin proposed the idea of animals having personhood — through ancient cultures believed this way before Darwin proposed it in scientific means. Perhaps there’s a reason the concept resurfaces again and again. Maybe… we should stop dismissing it.