PRINCETON, New Jersey -- In his "History of European Morals," published in 1869, the Irish historian and philosopher W.E.H. Lecky wrote:
At one time the benevolent affections embrace merely the family, soon the circle expanding includes first a class, then a nation, then a coalition of nations, then all humanity and finally, its influence is felt in the dealings of man with the animal world.
The expansion of the moral circle could be about to take a significant step forward. Francisco Garrido, a bioethicist and member of Spain's parliament, has moved a resolution exhorting the government "to declare its adhesion to the Great Ape Project and to take any necessary measures in international forums and organizations for the protection of great apes from maltreatment, slavery, torture, death and extinction."