It was normal to sacrifice animals. Rats, pigeons, pigs. Dogs. Chimpanzees. Biology had always suffered the cognitive push-pull of proving that humans were just another kind of animal while at the same time claiming to be morally different in kind. It was okay to kill a chimp in the name of science. It wasn’t okay to kill a person. Except, apparently, when it was. Maybe the catalyst had agreed to this. Maybe it was this or some other, more gruesome death. Whatever that would be.
