Personhood and Space: Nonhuman Animals
There's not enough science fiction about animals in space
Welcome to April, and another edition in my series on issues of personhood, ethics, and space. I’ve already written about artificial intelligence and genetically engineered humans. This month, let’s consider a category of space traveller whose personhood has been a subject of debate since long before space travel was possible: nonhuman animals.
So far in the history of space travel, we’ve primarily used animals in space as research subjects, particularly for tests that are considered too high-risk for humans. Animals famously reached space before humans: the first mammal to reach space was the rhesus monkey Albert II, the first to reach orbit was the dog Laika, and the first animals to orbit the moon were two tortoises. Other animals sent to space in the early decades of spaceflight include cats, chimpanzees, mice, frogs, rabbits, and fruit flies.
Even now that launch and spacecraft technologies are established enough that animals are rarely needed as test pilots, we continue to bring them off-planet for biological research. Astronauts conducting animal experiments in space have studied the effects of the space environment (like microgravity) on processes like reproduction, growth, digestion, healing, and behavior. As we build more permanent space outposts, we’ll probably also begin using animals in space for purposes that are already common on Earth: as livestock for food, companionship as pets, and to help maintain healthy ecosystems in our habitats.
Here on our home planet, however, there’s an ongoing debate over the ethics of using animals for these kinds of purposes. Should we kill and eat animals even though we could survive as vegetarians, and does that answer depend on some measure of each species’ “intelligence”? Should we inflict harm on animals that are capable of experiencing pain, or even simply deprive them of making their own choices, for our own benefit? The answers to these questions vary among cultures, and even among individuals.
Some animal rights advocates argue for recognizing legal personhood for certain species, or even for specific individual animals. The Nonhuman Rights Project, for example, has been fighting for legal personhood for elephants, great apes, and cetaceans in the U.S. through litigation and legislation. While the U.S. legal system has not yet granted legal personhood to a nonhuman animal, other nations have. Courts in Argentina granted legal personhood to an orangutan and later to a chimpanzee, both living in zoos. Indigenous leaders in the Pacific gathered last week to endorse a Declaration for the Ocean that includes a recognition of whales as “legal persons with inherent rights.” In 2021, the UK updated their Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill to include not only vertebrates but also animals like lobsters, crabs, and octopuses, based on scientific studies on animal sentience. (Note, though, that this law does not grant legal personhood to these species, only recommending that their welfare be considered in future policymaking.)
Choosing to bring animals to the alien, dangerous, and uncomfortable environment of space will bring new light to these questions. Space travel is still risky and potentially deadly, even when the passengers are not testing new spacecraft designs like the first generations of animal astronauts. Do we have the moral right to risk the lives of animals who don’t know what’s happening to them and cannot consent? Will we be inflicting new kinds of harm on sentient creatures by removing them from their home planet to spend their lives in an artificial and disorienting new environment? Perhaps we can weight the potential harms against possible benefits for these animals— after all, one commonly stated motivation by space settlement advocates is that we need to spread our species among multiple planets to avoid existential risk. If we bring other species along, we’ll be backing up their genetic data, as well, providing a potential avenue to escape extinction. Or is this just a handy excuse to avoid the fact that animals will be extremely useful for humans in space, and we’ll have a long list of reasons to downplay the ethical grey areas?
Other News
This Friday evening, I’ll be at the New York Academy of Sciences, featured in their “Authors at the Academy” series. I’ll be signing books and speaking with the Academy’s Chief Scientific Officer Brooke Grindlinger.
Later this month, I’m heading to Boston to participate in this year’s Space Week. I’ll be at the MIT Museum to talk about the movie Moon and chat about space ethics with Space Week founder Alissa Haddaji, but the week will be packed with all kinds of great events.
Last month, I had a great time visiting St. Louis for a live event presented by Missouri Humanites. My chat with St. Louis on the Air host Elaine Cha was recorded and is available now.