Its interesting. I think they should just change Austrian law so animals can receive donations.

I agree with the guy who thinks it's absurd. It is. Chimps are not humans.

Correct. While I agree it's absurd, they're about 99% identical, DNA-wise.

well why not just change austrian law?

Offhand, I think it would lead to a slippery-slope as to what's protected by law, and what isn't.

If Chimps can be called 'human,' legally, what would prevent Rhesus monkeys from not?

Edit

And then once the Great Apes are (hypothetically, of course) given legal status, what's the precedent? The current precedent is H. Sapien. Would we change the legal status to Homininae?

How about use-of tools? Would that determine what deserves legal status? Well even house-finches (birds) have been observed using tools.

How many other species are very similar DNA-wise? I never really took interest in that, but aren't a good bunch of things really pretty similar? Also, what is the average difference between humans? If we're identical to, say, 7 decimal points (99.99999%, don't you think 2 decimal points (99%) is quite removed? Again, I have very little idea of how similar DNAs are...

we got nutter here (closely linked to PETA, ALF, and other ecoterrorist groups) who go a step further. They want all animals to have the same "rights" as humans, a total ban on pet ownership (which they call slavery), everyone forcibly turned into a strict vegan (killing animals is murder in their book), etc.
What's worse, they've got 10 seats in parliament...

Wow I hope they didn't get elected based on that as their platform...

Now tell me -- how far-fetched is the Planet of the Apes ?