Superhumans: Legally/Scientifically Homo Sapiens Sapiens?

[Powersurge]

Genetically speaking, the difference between a human and a chimp is incredibly small, but at the same time incredibly significant. One would imagine that the genetic difference between a human and a superhuman would be comparable.

If a scientist could show that, by scientific definition, a superhuman exists beyond the classic defintion of Homo Sapiens Sapiens, how do you think this would effect the application law and other such things as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Do you think that a defence attorney could have a case thrown out of court based on legal grey area and the fact of science that the, say, mutant victim is not, technically, human and therefore has no more right to legal recourse than a "space alien", and signficantly less than an ape or dolphin which are at least explicitly acknowledged and dealt with in human law?

Wouldn't responsible government be obliged to address and quantify an emerging superhuman population, so as to prevent that exploitation, and ensure the fundamental rights, of human and superhuman a like?

[Dfense75]

If that lawyer used the infamous "Chewbacca defense" than he could prove them to be anything he wanted.

[Legerd]

They touched on that idea in an X-men one-shot years ago entitled: God Loves, Man Kills. In fact this story was used as the basis for the X2 movie.

[SephirothsKiller]

There may only be a small difference between man and monkey, but that's still millions of genes. I doubt that most superhumans would have that much difference, though alot of mutants probably would. I could see a big to do over including them under a new charter of rights and freedoms for Earth-born sentients.

[Le Messor]

I read somewhere once, a long time ago, that the scientific definition of a species is the ability to reproduce and create viable offspring (obviously, that's across species, not individuals). A sub-species can reproduce, but not create viable offspring (they'll create a mule; a viable life-form, but inherently sterile).

By that definition, almost all superbeings are human.

- Le Messor
"Eternity is the amount of time that it takes to know everything."