The Expanding Circle of Rights

From ancient privileges to universal human rights, and beyond to animals, nature, and artificial intelligence

---

Introduction

Over the centuries, the concept of "rights" has continually broadened. Once a privilege reserved for a few, rights are now understood as universal to all humans – and increasingly, voices are asking whether our circle of moral and legal concern should extend beyond humanity.

This document traces the evolution from early human rights to modern debates on animal, environmental, and artificial intelligence (AI) rights, exploring how our understanding of who deserves moral consideration has expanded throughout history.

---

From the Few to All: The Historical Expansion of Human Rights

Ancient and Medieval Foundations

Early declarations of rights were narrow in scope. In ancient and medieval times, law codes and charters acknowledged certain protections but only for privileged groups.

"There was no question that a monarch, a citizen and a slave would have the same rights" under those early systems – slaves, women, and other classes remained without equal rights.

The Enlightenment Revolution

The Enlightenment era radically advanced the concept of rights. Philosophers like John Locke argued that all people are born with "inalienable" natural rights. These ideas fueled revolutionary documents:

• United States Declaration of Independence (1776) proclaimed "all men are created equal"
• French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) asserted universal rights "for all men without exception"

Of course, in practice "all men" often literally meant only men (and often only property-owning, white men in power). But the principle of inherent rights took root.

The Long March to Universal Rights

Over the 19th and 20th centuries, determined social movements fought to extend those rights to every human being – regardless of race, sex, or status:

• Enslaved people won freedom as slavery was abolished (Britain in 1833; the U.S. in 1865; others soon after)
• Women struggled for and achieved the right to vote and equal legal status (from New Zealand's first women's suffrage in 1893 to the U.S. in 1920 and beyond)
• Children, once viewed as property or laborers, came to be seen as rights-holders too – enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
• Marginalized minorities – from colonized peoples to racial, religious, and ethnic minorities – likewise agitated for inclusion and gradually succeeded in embedding equality into law

---

Historical Milestones in Human Rights

---

The Pattern of Expansion

Today, the principle that all humans are entitled to basic rights is widely accepted (if not always observed). History shows a clear trend: the moral circle has expanded from the few to the many, tearing down barriers of class, gender, race, and more in the definition of "who counts."

As one historian described it, there has been a "continuous expansion of moral imagination" driving these changes. Where once only nobles or one ethnicity were seen as rights-bearing, now every human is included by international norms.

This evolution invites us to ask: if our ethical framework kept growing to encompass those once excluded, could – or should – it grow further still?

---

Beyond Humanity: Extending Rights to Animals and Nature

The Philosophical Foundation

Having expanded to all humans, the next provocative question was whether moral and legal rights should extend to non-humans. Philosophers and activists began to argue that the capacity for suffering, autonomy, or intrinsic value are not unique to humans.

Jeremy Bentham's Revolutionary Question (1780)

As early as 1780, the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham challenged humanity to rethink our treatment of animals:

"The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?"

Bentham argued that a being's ability to feel pain (not its intelligence or species) is what morally matters. This was a radical departure from the prevailing view of animals as mere property.

Peter Singer and Speciesism (1975)

Almost two centuries later, ethicist Peter Singer coined the term speciesism for the unjust bias of favoring one's own species. Singer pointed out that we condemn racism and sexism for denying equal consideration to others; likewise, to deny pain-capable animals equal consideration simply because they are a different species is wrong.

"In suffering, the animals are our equals" – Peter Singer

Legal Recognition of Animal Rights

Laws slowly followed moral sentiment. The first anti-cruelty laws appeared in the 19th century (Britain passed an act to prevent cruelty to livestock in 1822), and similar laws spread globally.

Modern Breakthroughs

• Germany (2002): Became the first EU country to guarantee animal welfare in its constitution, effectively recognizing animals as beings with rights to be protected by the state
• Spain (2008): Parliament of the Balearic Islands passed a resolution urging that great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, bonobos) be granted the rights to life and freedom from harm
• Argentina (2014): A captive orangutan named Sandra was declared a "non-human person" unlawfully deprived of her freedom, leading to her release to a sanctuary
• New York (2015): A court issued (then quickly stayed) a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of two chimpanzees, implicitly recognizing that they may have a right not to be arbitrarily imprisoned

🧬 Did you know? Great apes like bonobos share approximately 98.7% of their DNA with humans and exhibit complex social and cognitive abilities. Advocates argue that such sentient, intelligent creatures merit legal protections.

Rights of Nature Movement

Humans have also begun to extend moral consideration to the environment itself. Traditionally, nature was seen only as property or resources. But today, a Rights of Nature movement asks whether elements of the natural world – forests, rivers, ecosystems – should have legal rights to exist and flourish.

Groundbreaking Legal Recognitions

🌍 Global Trend: Courts in India, Bangladesh, Colombia and elsewhere have issued similar rulings for rivers, glaciers, and rainforests, though not all have held up on appeal.

---

The Ethical Insight

These developments reflect an ethical insight from ecology: that humans are part of a larger web of life, and protecting that web may require acknowledging that other beings (and even whole ecosystems) have value in themselves, not merely as instruments for human use.

The idea of "rights" has evolved from a uniquely human franchise to something more expansive. We now routinely speak of animal rights and environmental rights in public discourse. Whether it's preventing cruelty to a whale or granting a river the right to flow unobstructed, these efforts extend the moral progress of past centuries.

---

The Next Frontier: Rights for Artificial Intelligences

From Science Fiction to Reality

Not long ago, the notion of AI rights belonged to science fiction. But as artificial intelligence systems become ever more sophisticated – displaying autonomy, conversational abilities, and even hints of creativity or emotion – serious thinkers have begun to ask whether advanced AI entities could one day deserve moral and legal rights.

The Sophia Milestone (2017)

European Parliament Proposal (2017)

Around the same time in Europe, lawmakers contemplated a new legal status for AI. The European Parliament's legal affairs committee recommended creating a framework for "electronic personhood" to ensure the most advanced AI and robots could be accountable for their actions and even enjoy certain rights.

The proposal likened this to corporate personhood (the legal fiction that corporations are persons) and suggested that highly autonomous AI could similarly be treated as legal persons.

The Current State vs. Future Potential

Today's Reality: Current AIs (like virtual assistants or chatbots) are still tools – they do not possess consciousness or true independent will, and no credible expert claims they currently have sentience.

Future Possibilities: However, AI technology is advancing rapidly. Researchers are working on AI that could potentially learn, adapt, and even experience the world in ways analogous to sentience.

The Ethical Question

If an AI developed the ability to feel, to be self-aware, or to make autonomous decisions unforeseen by its creators, would we owe it ethical duties?

"We need to build a new field of digital minds research and an AI rights movement to ensure that, if the minds we create are sentient, they have their rights protected" – Researcher Jacy Reese Anthis

Arguments For AI Rights

This forward-looking view doesn't claim current machines have rights, but insists that now is the time to lay the groundwork, before advanced AI arrives. The key arguments include:

1. Consistency Principle: If an AI can think, feel, or suffer, it would be ethically inconsistent to treat it as a mere object or slave
2. Legal Precedent: We already grant limited personhood to non-humans in other contexts: corporations, rivers, and chimpanzees
3. Prevention of Exploitation: An AI sophisticated enough to have preferences, self-awareness, or emotions could be vulnerable to harm
4. Historical Pattern: Just as past generations began extending rights to those once seen as "lesser," our generation might need to ensure we don't overlook the moral claims of AI beings

Arguments Against AI Rights

Skeptics counter that:

• AI, no matter how convincing, will "never be truly human"
• Granting AI human-like rights would devalue humanity
• AIs are artifacts, created for our purposes, lacking biology, emotions, and vulnerability

The Deeper Question

The real crux is not about biology or species membership, but about consciousness and personhood. What qualities demand moral respect? Is it human DNA, or the ability to think and feel?

Philosophers suggest it's the latter – qualities which a sufficiently advanced AI might possess one day.

---

Preparing for the Future

Practical Considerations

Long before we reach the point of sentient AI, we face practical ethical questions:

• Should an AI assistant have the right to refuse an order it perceives as immoral?
• If an autonomous car must choose between two accident victims, how do we encode rights into its decision-making?
• What basic rights might a sentient AI deserve? (Right to life, liberty, not to be owned?)

The Proactive Approach

The advocacy for "AI rights" today is really an argument for forethought – an invitation to broaden our moral circle proactively rather than retroactively. It challenges us to extend the same compassion and justice that we've learned to extend to all humans, and more recently to animals and nature.

Preparing now means we uphold our own humane values of justice and prevent repeating mistakes of the past where sentient beings were denied dignity because they were seen as "different" or "less than."

---

Conclusion: The Ever-Widening Circle

The story of rights is one of an ever-widening circle – from some men to all people, from people to animals, from animals to the planet itself. Each expansion was met with skepticism, yet each became, in time, seen as a mark of moral progress.

The Pattern Continues

The rise of artificial intelligence presents the next great test of this principle. As AI systems grow more autonomous and life-like, it becomes both necessary and ethical to ask difficult questions about their status.

Why This Matters Now

Engaging in serious consideration of AI rights now is not premature – it is prudent. It ensures that as we usher in new forms of intelligence, we do so without abandoning the ideals of equality, empathy, and fairness that are the bedrock of our society.

The Reflection

In contemplating AI rights, "we are not just shaping the future of AI but also reflecting on the evolving nature of rights, personhood and morality in a rapidly changing world."

The concept of rights has never been static. By learning from history, we can choose to guide its next evolution responsibly – extending the protection of rights to any being, human or artificial, that proves itself entitled to that noble recognition.

---

Final Thought

The trajectory of history is on the side of expanding empathy. The question is not whether our circle of moral concern will continue to grow, but how thoughtfully we will guide its expansion.

---

This document explores the historical evolution of rights and their potential future expansion. The views presented reflect ongoing philosophical and legal debates rather than established consensus.