Jerry Was a Man

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Jerry Was a Man (1947) is a short story by Robert A. Heinlein, concerning the attempt by a genetically modified chimpanzee to achieve human rights. It is collected in the book Assignment in Eternity. The main theme of the story is civil liberties, in this case extended towards a group of genetically enhanced chimpanzees to allow them equal rights under the law, one of the first examples of science fiction addressing questions that troubles contemporary society. Some of the characterizations, particularly that of the splendidly drawn shyster lawyer J.R. McCoy and the snooty upper-class adversaries, will echo in later works (McCoy would have been right at home advising clients in a Luna City bar in Heinlein's 1966 novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress).