I’m all for it, but why just whales? Why not all sentient beings? How can we continue to be so blindly speciesist? I guess it’s a tangible first step that could lead to humankind waking up to its appalling, socially accepted treatment of other animals.
Legal personhood for cetaceans is a strategic first step that forces society to confront the contradiction of how we acknowledge sentience but still treat beings as objects.
Whales capture public empathy and scientific backing, which makes them a powerful case study. The broader aim is exactly what you said… to open the door to rights for all sentient life. If society accepts this for whales, the precedent is set.
If you ever wanna talk more about this, I'm a Māori whale enthusiast from Aotearoa New Zealand who is hugely passionate about whale legal personhood from a Māori perspective! Not an expert but love to chat
Fantastic article, actually, this movement is not new, it started over 30 years ago with the work of Dr Thomas White, several decades ago and his pioneering work to give Cetaceans, Dolphins ( and hoped to do the same for Whales), the legal recognition and protection as Persons too. Listen to my podcast where I interviewed Dr White here in 2010 https://carlitashaw.substack.com/p/episode-11-in-defense-of-dolphins-035
Great to see this Luke. I wrote about this last year here: https://degrowthistheanswer.substack.com/p/what-if-we-gave-nature-legal-rights?utm_source=publication-search
but you've inspired me to write about it again to bring it to more people's attention.
I’m all for it, but why just whales? Why not all sentient beings? How can we continue to be so blindly speciesist? I guess it’s a tangible first step that could lead to humankind waking up to its appalling, socially accepted treatment of other animals.
Legal personhood for cetaceans is a strategic first step that forces society to confront the contradiction of how we acknowledge sentience but still treat beings as objects.
Whales capture public empathy and scientific backing, which makes them a powerful case study. The broader aim is exactly what you said… to open the door to rights for all sentient life. If society accepts this for whales, the precedent is set.
If you ever wanna talk more about this, I'm a Māori whale enthusiast from Aotearoa New Zealand who is hugely passionate about whale legal personhood from a Māori perspective! Not an expert but love to chat
Fantastic article, actually, this movement is not new, it started over 30 years ago with the work of Dr Thomas White, several decades ago and his pioneering work to give Cetaceans, Dolphins ( and hoped to do the same for Whales), the legal recognition and protection as Persons too. Listen to my podcast where I interviewed Dr White here in 2010 https://carlitashaw.substack.com/p/episode-11-in-defense-of-dolphins-035
or listen here https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/sailingbeyondknowledge/episodes/2010-01-23T18_19_46-08_00
This is so exciting! If this happens, so many whales that are suffering or endangered will be helped, it will be an amazing advance!!!