ABSTRACT
In a fascinating novel, That You Shall Know Them (Vercors 1953), a journalist discovers human-like primates being forced to work in plantations in New Guinea. He believes that this is slavery because of their closeness to humans. He brings a female back to London where they have a child through artificial insemination. The infant is recognized as human by the state and church through registering the birth and baptism. Next he kills the child with strychnine poison, and then insists on being tried for murder to force a test case. In court the lawyers and the jury debate whether or not the infant he killed was human or a sub-human animal. Although fiction, the book is inspired by some facts. In parts of South and Southeast Asia macaque monkeys are trained to harvest tree crops. Whether or not this is humane might be debated by some of those concerned with animal rights, and Vercors was a pioneer in that arena.
