I posted this on FB, but I would rather have posted it here.
To all my FB friends, I apologize for the redundancy.
The transgender movement and others are raising some
interesting legal issues. Now that legal protection has been granted, the next
step is to have certain operations and subsequent health needs sanctioned by
existing health care systems or providers so that the taxpayer is on the hook
for payment.
As we keep pushing the line between how we were born and how
we feel that we should have been born, I think additional legal questions will
need to be answered. The following may seem absurd now, but so did a sex change
not too long ago. (Also, when someone can claim affluenza as a defense, all
bets are off on how far things can go.)
Now, a Norwegian woman is claiming to be a cat.
If she is able to be legally declared a cat--and born that way such that she always
was a cat--would she then be disclaiming all rights to personhood? In other
words, the state should have no responsibility to care for her in a manner that
is distinct from a feline. If someone were to kill her, it would be cruelty to
animals rather than murder. She could also be put down legally for various
reasons. Until recently, if she wandered over to Denmark,
it would have been legal to rape her; it is still legal in neighboring Finland
as well as Hungary and Romania (see previous link). She also cannot give
contractual consent, which would have severe property and ownership
ramifications for her. If she were American, she could say goodbye to her
inheritance. Nowhere in the US can an animal claim inheritance through a will
or a trust.
If I were to write an op-ed on this issue, I can almost
guarantee that the reaction would not be how silly or perverse this is; but
instead, the activists would push for stronger animal rights in order to
protect people (or "cats") such as these. Moreover, who's to say that
my dog isn't really a person trapped in a Pomeranian's body. Actually, that
would explain why he got so fat--he is likely a pregnant woman trapped in a
Pom's body. I wonder what species the baby will be?
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