HOUSE BILL: Enceladus Mission Probe Funding (Passed)

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I'll wait to dive into the substance of the bill until the sponsor has had chance to make his opening remarks, but as someone whose field of expertise lies well apart from the moons of Saturn, I wonder if there is a particular reason Enceladus has been selected for this program?

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Something to consider: suppose we do find life on Enceladus. What rights would these organisms — intelligent or otherwise — have, and how would we go about seeing that they are respected? It would be a tragedy indeed if we were discover life elsewhere in the solar system, only to extinguish it through carelessness.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I was under the impression that the sponsor was to introduce an amendment on the rights of alien life forms; in lieu of this, I propose the following:

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Atlasian People's House of Representatives
Pending
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[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I second the remarks by the Minority Leader. I would, first, remind my colleagues that the amendment refers to genocide, not the accidental killing of a few microbes.

More importantly, however, I cannot condone the implicit argument that the extermination of the only known alien life in the universe would be an acceptable price to pay for getting a closer look at a rock. We have, as the authors of a potentially historic mission, an obligation to take the ethical implications of our actions into account. We must not allow the mistakes of Columbus and Cortez to be repeated on Enceladus. No doubt my colleagues will think this a false equivalence; yet as the Minority Leader notes, we cannot know if the organisms we may find are sentient. To wave away concern for the rights of new species so to pave the way for future colonization is a chilling prospect, and one I cannot support.

This amendment is an effort to be thorough, and to set in place legal protections before discoveries are made and the rationalizations of selfishness begin. The discovery of alien life would be a unique opportunity, and we must treat it carefully; if that carefulness causes delays, that is far preferable to the would-be genocide of a species.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

AYE!

So much for a negotiated settlement.

Where's the fun in that?

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Is an amendment forthcoming?