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| - An extra-terrestrial, a vampire, a mythical or magical being, or maybe even a half-human being or a person who transforms into a monster or has somehow gained superpowers runs the risk of being found out. If the general public discovers their true nature, they could be dissected in a lab or suffer some equally unpleasant fate. Mind you, as sentient beings who look (and possibly are) quite human, they still should enjoy some basic civil rights (even if they aren't documented citizens; not even the most extreme Minuteman Militia member has suggested dissecting illegal aliens). However, this does not stop the government from wanting to imprison the being (without trial, naturally) and use them as subjects in endless (probably painful) experiment.
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| abstract
| - An extra-terrestrial, a vampire, a mythical or magical being, or maybe even a half-human being or a person who transforms into a monster or has somehow gained superpowers runs the risk of being found out. If the general public discovers their true nature, they could be dissected in a lab or suffer some equally unpleasant fate. Mind you, as sentient beings who look (and possibly are) quite human, they still should enjoy some basic civil rights (even if they aren't documented citizens; not even the most extreme Minuteman Militia member has suggested dissecting illegal aliens). However, this does not stop the government from wanting to imprison the being (without trial, naturally) and use them as subjects in endless (probably painful) experiment. The being has to run from the authorities as opposed to going to the courts and having a restraining order issued, or perhaps going to the media about it (this is especially jarring when the being can prove its claims), calling 911, or applying any of the myriad legal remedies that protect everyday people from what amounts to a metric buttload of civil rights violations and outright felonies committed against their person. Somehow, none of the "normal people" notice, and likely wouldn't care if they knew. The pursuers, who have the power of the FBI, CIA, or even the Postal Service (hey... don't sneer at the Post Office; the Postal Inspector's office is the only law enforcement arm of any government in the US with a perfect 100% conviction rate) behind them, never seem to realize that they could be arrested for their treatment of the being, losing their careers, reputations, and freedom because of it. Whether or not non-humans have any legal rights is something yet to be decided by any court. Technically, they have no legal rights, as laws are written to cover only known life forms. Thus, technically, "the pursuers" would not be risking their freedom. On the other hand, this does mean the alien/magical being has no legal obligation to not simply kill the nuisance, as said being committing a murder is not covered by law either. This technicality does not cover humans who have gained powers, however. Having the ability to fly does not make you non-human. Neither does being in the wrong time or from an Alternate Universe. Those are all still human beings, and people in any court of law. Likewise, humans who are legally dead still have rights, as nothing in the law restrict rights to only living people. In reality, dead humans still have property rights, that is to say, their estate, although someone else is needed to manage and dissolve it. The dead would presumable have other rights or protections under the law if they asked for them. And while death legally means cessation of brain activity, which vampires may not have, no doctor is going to declare someone dead when they're moving around and talking, so they probably aren't even 'legally dead' in the first place. (Zombies and other non-sentient undead, on the other hand, might indeed be brain dead, and a doctor might be willing to declare them so, and it's not like they're likely to be asking for any rights anyways). It is worth noticing that 'people' have rights, not 'humans'. So if a writer wished to ignore the issue, they can mention that courts declared them 'people', no need to rewrite any laws or constitutions at all. Note that this trope is only valid for places in which there are civil rights for humans to begin with. A perfectly ordinary human would have to escape a tyrannical government that was persecuting him as much as any mermaid or vampire. The one time when this trope clearly applies is when the human in question can be argued to have significantly sub-normal intelligence. Examples would include embryos, young babies, terminal-comas, and exceptionally severe levels of mental illness/disability. In such circumstances the, "But they're as smart as we are, and thus should be our equals" reasoning breaks down completely. Babies are not as smart as we are, or even as smart as dogs are. Yet the babies get rights, and the dogs don't. While perfectly understandable from a social, religious, and evolutionary point of view, this is difficult to prove by the standards of evidence that a law court (or science) requires. In this way the trope is also linked to Animal Wrongs Group, who take the not entirely illogical stance that if a baby is sapient then so are furfarm mink and lab rats. "Well surely it isn't the other way round..." Similarly, most stories tend to avoid the complexities of non-human children, or the other creature's point of view. A werewolf killing a baby is obviously evil! A human animal charity 'accidentally' killing a baby werewolf? I mean how could the charity have known? Whereas the werewolf/monster/alien must have known! Human babies are of course so obviously intelligent... A subtrope of What Measure Is a Non-Human? and usually You Fail Law Forever. Overlaps with They Would Cut You Up. Because of the above Fridge Logic this trope sits neatly between Animal Wrongs Group and Those Wacky Nazis. See also Zombie Advocate, when a character advocates for the rights of non-humans. Examples of Inhumanable Alien Rights include:
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