Taking a life, whether human or ape, is a hard thing to do. Hell, it is probably the hardest thing to do, as seen by all of our troops coming home all messed up from what goes on in war. Killing, particularly killing something with such strong human qualities and characteristics, changes a person. As the old saying goes, you lose a bit of yourself. It is why after reading some of the other posts on this topic that its easy to see why we all have such varying opinions on this topic.

On the other hand, there is no better feeling in the world than helping someone. Particularly when you know that you have actually saved that person’s life. That is why I am in support of using chimpanzee hearts for human medical transplant.  I am of the opinion that helping to save a human life is one of the most important things one can do.

That being said I also believe that we shouldn’t make a species extinct to do so. We should only pursue this path if there are enough preliminary data to say that this will work. With a species like Chimpanzees on the cusp of extinction as is there is no room for starting the experiments here. If however we do know that it will work, than I am all for it.