What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"Boy, [[Just a Machine|if those employees weren't robots]], I would have looked like some kind of serial killer or something, eh?"''|'''Dr. McNinja''', ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]''}}
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* Obviously nonliving things like inanimate objects do not figure into this at all... Unless you're in an [[Everything Talks]] situation where the objects are given names, faces, personalities, and so on. And especially if, in the case of the broken-down cars in ''[[The Brave Little Toaster]]'' and Jessie from ''[[Toy Story]] 2'', they sing sad, sad songs about the day their owners threw them away. Mileage on a [[Companion Cube]] may vary, though usually if it gets destroyed/damaged, other ''characters'' will react as if you'd just killed something that was alive.
** Special exceptions may apply in the case of great historical and cultural treasures, usually because someone who values them may opt for a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] rather than allow them to be destroyed.
* Robots and Artificial Intelligence stories examine this quite a lot in their plots, possibly because of the writings of [[Isaac Asimov]]. Good robots and other [[Mechanical Lifeforms]] are considered people most of the time. Killing one is generally the karmic equivalent of killing a human the same
* [[The Undead|Undead]] beings like [[Dem Bones|skeletons]], [[Zombie Apocalypse|zombies, ghouls]], and victims of certain strains of [[The Virus]] do not blip ''at all'' in this value (despite still being Homo Sapiens). There's hardly any controversy about it either,probably because they're trying to kill you. In fact, killing one is seen as only helping along a [[Undeath Always Ends|natural process]].
** There are some exceptions in the very, very rare works where the zombies are not entirely mindless and retain a bit more personality and/or self-control. One example of this (albeit one that some viewers found ridiculous) is the 2008 remake of ''Day of the Dead''. It is eventually revealed that certain zombies not only don't eat people, but are completely non-violent. Because of this, multiple characters argue over whether or not it's okay to kill them. They ''are'' [[Carnivore Confusion|zombies]], but they aren't hurting anyone. More on this in the Film section.
** There are other exceptions in cases where someone close to the hero of a story gets [[What Happened to Mommy|turned into a zombie or in-world equivalent]]. The good guys usually can't bring themselves to pull the trigger on what is still outwardly a loved one. This often leads to a [[Shoot the Dog]] moment. A major factor in this is whether or not the infected person's [[Our Souls Are Different|mind or soul]] has been irretrievably destroyed by whatever overtook them, which often leads to a [[Find the Cure]] situation. (Too damn bad about [[What Measure Is a Mook?|all the nameless assimilated people]].)
* Vampires, while they are technically among the undead, have variable ranges simply because they usually have more personality. Most characters can kill them anyway even if they're [[Technical Pacifist
** Expect that last detail to [[Van Helsing Hate Crimes|make things awkward]] in fiction where there are [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampires|good vampires]], or vampires who aren't evil, [[Carnivore Confusion|just hungry]], operating in the same world.
*** It should also be mentioned that a typical way for a Vampire to die (turning to dust/ash) also means that it's a lot easier to ''show'' a Vampire dying or being killed onscreen. Considering that the original way of killng a vampire was far more complicated and involved (i.e.: you had to turn it to ash [[Kill It with Fire|the hard way]]), it should probably be the other way around: that Vampires started dying that way ''because'' it was safer to show on TV.
** Special mention must be made of [[Beta Baddie
* On to living things. The value of the life of a non-human [[Animal Motifs|animal]] in fiction, distressingly, tends to relate directly to how much humans like said animal. Thus dogs are protected by [[Infant Immortality]] but [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|snakes]], spiders and [[Bug War|insects]] are trampled without a second thought. Sadly, this is [[Truth in Television]]. To paraphrase an old Dennis Leary routine about the Endangered Species Act, "You ''know'' how this is going to end! Eventually, [[Humans Are Bastards|only the cute and cool animals will get to live!"]]
** There is also the fact that when a character ceases to be human, they no longer matter. And the fact that it is totally wrong to treat humans like cattle but fine for any other species.
* Not that they appear much as characters in fiction, but [[That Poor Plant|plants, protists, fungi, bacteria, and so on and so forth]] do not count ''at all'' on this scale.
** Justified in that, since they don't have brains or nervous systems, plants are probably NOT sentient and probably don't know or care that they're being killed (in other words, it's like destroying an inanimate, non-living object). See [http://www.skepdic.com/plants.html here], the madsci posts [http://madsci.org/posts/archives/2003-05/1051832770.Bt.r.html here], [http://madsci.org/posts/archives/2004-12/1102560471.Bt.r.html here], [http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2009-10/1255363711.Bt.r.html here] and [http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2009-11/1257738036.Bt.r.html here], and other sources [http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=plants-cannot-think-and-remember-bu-2010-07-16 here] and [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/science/10plant.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2 here].
*** Just for the sake of pointing it out, people who've interpreted certain reactions plants have to external stimuli as signs of plant sentience might be the closest there's ever been to a literal example of the trope [[Epileptic Trees]].
*** If a [[Soapbox Sadie]] is present, though, you can get a major talking-to for this, but it's never really taken seriously, like the character, and is often played for comedy. However, [[Avatar|burning down a forest]] is often a [[Moral Event Horizon]], but that's a different level altogether.
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* If the [[Big Bad]] is revealed to be [[Not Even Human|non-human]] as a [[Tomato Surprise]] or [[One-Winged Angel|assuming his monstrous true form]], it usually makes it OK to kill them if it wasn't before.
* [[Rubber Forehead Aliens]] rarely have this problem - as their actors are obviously human, it is easy to transfer the value (this is largely why the trope persists even into the modern, CG-heavy era). [[Humanoid Animals]] and [[Half-Human Hybrid|Half Human Hybrids]] tend to get the same protection as a normal human... but it depends on how humanlike they are. If they take up a form that isn't bipedal, rely on their instincts too much, or otherwise start toward the [[Talking Animal]] side of things, they can quickly reach the level of monsters-of-the-week.
* As far as other fantastic races, it often seems that the morality of killing the race depends on how much they resemble humans either culturally or physically. [[Five Races|Dwarves, elves, gnomes and halflings]] all look relatively human, and so killing them is bad, but the bestial-looking [[
* And then there is an uncomfortable border line occupied by characters who ''are''
** [[Cloning Blues|Clones]], [[All the Myriad Ways|parallel universe duplicates]], and other [[Doppelganger
* Supernatural entities vary depending on alignment. Typically demons are on the same level as undead.
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[[Category:Philosophy Tropes]]
[[Category:Human Rights Issues]]
[[Category:
[[Category:What Measure Is A Non Human]]
[[Category:What Measure Is a Non-Human?]]
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