I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the ethical issues raised by captivity. I know that teaching philosophy in a prison is pushing my thinking in challenging new directions, but I started thinking hard about captivity when I began my work with captive chimpanzees.
Chimpanzees have been kept in captivity in the U.S. for over a hundred years. Even when a chimpanzee descends from multiple generations of captives, she still maintains her wildness. Appreciating that wildness and the inevitability of captivity raises interesting questions.
For example, we ordinarily think that to be held captive is prima facie, to cause harm. We justify holding humans captive when they have done something that warrants our depriving them of their liberty. We harm them, but it may not always be wrong to do so. One of the corollaries of the commonly held view is that while denying liberty is harmful, denying liberty to one who is innocent, who does nothing to deserve the deprivation, is clearly wrong. The chimpanzees we hold in captivity did nothing to deserve it. They are innocent as it were.
Do we do something wrong when we deny them liberty?
Clearly when denying liberty involves physical and/or psychological suffering; for example, when chimpanzees are regularly shot with tranquilizer darts from close range and then fall from their perches onto the hard floor as they start to lose consciousness; when they have multiple surgeries and do not have adequate pain relief after they wake up from surgery; when they have rocks or coke cans thrown at them; when they do not have fresh fruit or vegetables; when they are not provided with intellectual stimulation, comfort, etc.; when they are denied stable social relations with others of their kind; then what we are doing is harmful to them. The wrong consists in our causing them suffering, not that we are denying them freedom.
But do we also do something wrong just by keeping them captive even if they don’t suffer physically or psychologically?
I think that controlling chimpanzees in captive contexts, e.g. deciding when and what they eat, who they can spend time with, and restricting their activities, denies them their agency and may even be considered a violation of a chimpanzee’s dignity. Perhaps this is what is wrong with keeping them in captivity even if they aren’t suffering.
We might think that if holding them captive is wrong then we should release them from confinement. However, in most cases this would be a death sentence. There is very little wild left into which the captives can be released. More importantly, even if there are environments into which chimpanzees may be set free, most captives have lost the ability to survive on their own in their native habitats.
Keeping them captive is wrong, and freeing them is wrong. It seems we have a dilemma.
Currently there are about 2000 chimpanzees in captivity, and the conditions of their captivity vary tremendously. Carefully considering their captive conditions and working to improve them, trying to promote the chimpanzees’ psychological well-being, and respecting their wild dignity may be a way to minimize the impact of this dilemma. There are sanctuaries and some zoos that are trying to do this.
But there are some institutions that not only refuse to discuss the possibility of recognizing chimpanzee dignity, but are indifferent to their physical and psychological suffering. The United States is the only country in the world, except possibly Gabon, that uses chimpanzees in invasive biomedical research. In 1986 the British Government banned the use of chimpanzees in research on ethical grounds, arguing that given how close chimpanzees were to humans to treat them as expendable was immoral. The last research facility using chimpanzees in Europe stopped in 2004, when biomedical research with chimpanzees became illegal in the Netherlands. Japan ended biomedical experimentation on chimpanzees in 2006.
Currently there are 185 chimpanzees who have been living stable, comfortable lives on an Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Some of these chimpanzees were used in the space program, but they have not been used for research for over a decade. Many of these individuals are in their 40s and 50s. The government is now planning to move these chimpanzees into invasive biomedical research. Chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall and Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico have urged the government to reconsider. I too have suggested that the dignity of these chimpanzees be respected and that they be allowed to stay where they are. If you agree with me, then you can lend your voice too:
Contact:
francis.collins@nih.gov
301-496-2433
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
9000 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20892
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