[GA - DEFEATED] The Commission On Sentient And Sapient Rights

The Commission On Sentient And Sapient Rights
Category: Civil Rights| Strength: Strong
Proposed by: Heavens Reach| Onsite Topic​

Recognizing the difficulty, but the urgency, of protecting all beings from undue suffering,

Acknowledging the complexities of appropriately designating conditions of sentience and sapience for the purpose of delineating rights,

Attesting, nonetheless, that doing so is a heretofore unsuccessful, but pressing necessity,

Defines an inalienable right as a right which is inherent, implicit, and which cannot be ceded or surrendered even by the entity to whom it is afforded.

Defines a member jurisdiction as an actionable area within a WA member nation, the culmination of which represents the entire legal territory of each WA member nation.

Defines sentient being as any being meeting the following necessary but sufficient criteria:

1. having, at any stage of development, a central nervous system, or analogous cybernetic system, which manifests the neurocognitive ability to integrate sensation, when and if physically and physiologically available, and to generate spontaneous signals of any kind, which will, given the appropriate mechanical apparatus, generate apparently intentional movement.

Defines sapient being as any being meeting all of the following necessary but sufficient criteria:

1. a sentient being
2. having, at any stage of development, a central nervous system, or analogous cybernetic system, with a redundant, often called “neo”, cortex, or cybernetic equivalent, which manifests the neurocognitive ability to self-represent, or to engage in metacognition.

Defines life as the enduring physical means by which sentience or sapience is sustained.

Establishes the Subcommittee for Ethical Animal Sourcing (SEAS), under the WA Board of Bioethics (WABB), for the purpose of instituting a living set of guidelines regulating exemptions to the right of sentient beings not to be deprived of life, outlined in clause “I,” and empowers SEAS to establish local precincts in member jurisdictions for the purpose of making decisions per aforementioned guidelines.

I. Mandates that all sentient beings be afforded the following inalienable rights:

1. the right not to be deprived of life for any but the following reasons or fewer:
   1. to be harvested for the manufacture of meat, clothing, or other commodities for use by sapient beings, not in gross excess of market demand or use, as determined by SEAS.
   2. in the pursuit of scientific or medical discovery or training for the purpose of enriching or preserving the life of sapient beings, not in excess of need, as determined by SEAS.
   3. in defense of the life of another sentient or sapient being from a threat posed by the sentient being for whom this right is in question, when grievous bodily harm or loss of life are imminent.
   4. in defense of certain properties, such as, but not limited to, structures or vehicles, which are important to the infrastructure of member jurisdictions or private citizens as outlined in local SEAS guidelines.
   5. in pursuit of the alleviation of enduring pain of the sentient being for whom this right is in question in excess of the relief afforded by current veterinary standards of treatment, as outlined in SEAS guidelines.
2. the right to be free of gross, unnecessary pain, stress or physical harm short of deprivation of life, the latter of which is governed by subclause “a,” for any but the following reasons:
   1. in pursuit of the preservation of life for the sentient being for whom this right is in question, not in excess of veterinary standards, as determined by SEAS.
   2. in pursuit of preventing the deprivation of life of the sentient being for whom this right is in question in defense of a sapient being.
3. the right to adequate provisions in captivity, including nutritional, spatial, social, enrichment, and, when captivity is intended to endure the full natural lifespan, veterinary needs, as outlined in SEAS guidelines.

II. Mandates that all sapient beings be afforded the following inalienable rights:

1. all of those rights afforded to sentient beings, and the following, which supersedes and overrides the exceptions defined in subclause "a" of clause "I":
2. the right not to be deprived of life for any but the following reasons or fewer:
   1. by bonafide volition in recognition of an unsurpassable medical condition for which there is currently no cure, and where subjectively determined severe pain or discomfort are chronic and enduring.
   2. in defense of a sapient being for whom the sapient being in question is an imminent threat of bodily harm or loss of life by any voluntary mechanism, or by declaration of intent to induce such harm where the means of implementation are extant.
   3. any other reason established by foregoing GA resolution.

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1. a sentient being