Right- although I would not agree that every being has the same rights. I don't think grass has the right to choose whether to be cut, for instance. (Grass evolved to be cut by hooves, and hooves evolved to cut grass.) And I prefer to think of crimes against humanity as, well, crimes against humanity, not against the universe.

But M.Ted, I wasn't (or didn't mean to be) reducing morality to pain v. comfort, I was giving an example of how we could evolve, say, the golden rule, without needing to refer to some outside point of reference. We can figure it out with our very real senses. And our intelligence.