"Of course. Don't you?"
Grego laughed sourly. "Nick thinks you have to believe a thing to prove
it. It helps but it isn't necessary. Say we're a debating team; we've been
handed the negative of the question. _Resolved: that Fuzzies are Sapient
Beings._ Personally, I think we have the short end of it, but that only
means we'll have to work harder on it."
"You know, I was on a debating team at college," Emmert said brightly.
When that was disregarded, he added: "If I remember, the first thing was
definition of terms."
Grego looked up quickly. "Leslie, I think Nick has something. What is the
legal definition of a sapient being?"
"As far as I know, there isn't any. Sapience is something that's just
taken for granted."
"How about talk-and-build-a-fire?"
He shook his head. "_People of the Colony of Vishnu_ versus _Emily
Morrosh_, 612 A.E." He told them about the infanticide case. "I was
looking up rulings on sapience; I passed the word on to Ham O'Brien. You
know, what your people will have to do will be to produce a definition of
sapience, acceptable to the court, that will include all known sapient
races and at the same time exclude the Fuzzies. I don't envy them."
"We need some Fuzzies of our own to study," Grego said.
"Too bad we can't get hold of Holloway's," Emmert said. "Maybe we could,
if he leaves them alone at his camp."
"No. We can't risk that." He thought for a moment. "Wait a moment. I think
we might be able to do it at that. Legally."