eve_prime | "Dolphins as Persons?"

This interesting article summarizes recent research on dolphins' abilities, and related philosophical thinking. It doesn't address the complicated issues involved in relating "the right to be protected from harm" to cognitive abilities (e.g., some philosophers question that cognition should even be relevant, given that most of us believe that even severely mentally disabled humans ought to be treated decently, regardless of how they think). And then, of course, there's the matter of major cultural divides, where some societies don't even extend full personhood to women, so it will be quite a while before humanity could hope to reach a consensus on dolphins.