Of course, getting everyone to agree to support and promote life and
intelligence means coming up with a definition everone out there would
agree upon for both those areas. Would some species even consider us
intelligent? Would their sensory apparatus be sufficient to distinguish
us as living beings, or their biology be so different that by their
standards we don't qualify?

And even here at home, some can use that debate for their own
purposes. I saw a documentary last night about Nazi propaganda films used
before and during the war to encourage doctors to terminate the physically
and mentally disadvantaged, particularly the latter. They were routinely
gassed in asylums. The logic they used: the mentally insane suffered
from "existence without life." Thus there was no crime in eliminating
them.

jms