I recently heard a podcast of This American Life which included a story about Lucy, an chimpanzee who was taken from her mother soon after birth and raised by humans. This happened in the 1960s. I could paraphrase the story in detail, however, it's rather complicated and long. Suffice to say, while Lucy was raised successfully, she still remained a chimpanzee and the family that raised her ended up dumping her in Africa when she became too big, strong, and incontrollable to stay in human society.
To the family's credit, they tried for several years to make it work.
The motivation was just deplorable - an experiment by a psychologist, who became the "dad" to the infant chimpanzee. Indeed, they learned a lot about how much a chimp could become like a human, including language (sign language), potty training, and similar behaviors. They also learned that even with all this conditioning, the nature could not be completely overcome.
Lucy became unique - and not in a good way. She wasn't human, but wasn't fully chimp, either. She couldn't go to the wild, but couldn't remain in human society because she was too dangerous. After this became apparent, they took her to Gambia and left her at a sanctuary for similar chimps, such as former circus performers and pets gone bad.
One woman, Janis Carter, who had been Lucy's caregiver in human society stayed with her. This person ended up moving a bunch of the chimps to an island in the Gambia river, to isolate/protect them and let them build their own society away from the wild. Eventually, the woman left (there are valid reasons why leaving was necessary). She came back to visit once, and while Lucy was getting along, she was still different.
The second time the woman returned, she found Lucy's skeleton. Seems that poachers killed her and took the valuable hands and feet for black market trade. No one really knows how or why Lucy was killed.
Can you imagine- Lucy had been conditioned to trust humans, and she possibly walked unknowingly to her own demise. We trained her to be this way.
To me, to make someone so different that she doesn't fit in anywhere is, as my title says, unspeakably cruel. Humans and chimps are social animals, and to alter natural needs and inclinations such that the animal can never be satisfied is horrendous.
Sure, I react like a social animal to whom isolation is tragic. I feel compassion for other beings, and cruelty wrenches my heart. This cruelty seems even more sad because the motivation did not seem honorable, even - it seems like they didn't deeply consider the "what-if's" when they embarked on this journey. We humans have the capacity to understand the consequences of our actions, therefore it is imperative that we do so!!
Ignorance is one thing. Impulsiveness is another. Thus, the need for a review board for science experimentation. We know we are vulnerable to our passions, and we have learned that the collective wisdom of groups can help us see more clearly.
In this case, I don't think there's any way to make it right. Not like we can pay restitution to the survivors.
I take from this: we need a God (or higher power) from which to seek forgiveness for these awful things we keep doing. We also need a God to guide us to the moral ideal. All religions teach us how to be a moral society and we need that to keep us striving for peace and harmony. I doubt we'll ever reach it, but we get closer and closer.
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