Who Speaks for the Martians?

The meteorite ALH84001.0, recently discovered in Antarctica, may provide evidence that there was once life on Mars. It is believed that this meteorite contains ancient, fossilized, Martian bacteria. Should primitive extraterrestrial organisms have any kind of rights at all? If life is found to be on Mars, or found to have been on Mars, its effect on the religious world are unpredictable.The late Dr.Carl Sagan wrote that "if there is currently life on Mars, we should do nothing with Mars even if they are microbes." But on the other hand author Robert Zubrin suggests that "the existence of extraterrestrial organisms should not prevent humans from manifesting their destiny of colonizing Mars." Could we forgive ourselves if we caused the extinction of the first extraterrestrial species we come in contact with? But if the only living life form(s) on Mars are microbes, then: Who speaks for the Martians? ultimately... we do. It's up to the humans to decide what is right.

Individual governments from Earth do not have ultimate control over what science experiments and human presence will occur on Mars. Ultimate control on Mars depends on specific missions. In 1984 an international body of scientists worked together to create a Planetary Protection Policy for Mars. This policy is designed to preserve the Mars environment from contamination by humans or other organic matter from Earth that accidentally travels on our manned or unmanned missions. The Mars Pathfinder rover had to be sterilized before it left Earth in order to ensure Mars would not be contaminated. It could also be hazardous if any living bacteria on Mars happened to be genetically compatible with Earth bacteria and a whole new bacteria, could form and be devastating.

If Mars has living bacteria, we may need to be careful about any samples we return with from Mars. In 1989 an international body of scientists created another policy on the Protection of Earth from Mars Sample Return Missions

In the future, if we colonize Mars, what laws will govern how we work together? The Antarctic Treaty is a good example of how humans from many different countries work together peacefully on Earth. This document could be the basis for future Martian Law.

The Mars Shop is a web site that which offers to sell property on Mars or the moon. This company's claims are false, they do not own Mars or the moon. One funny thing about their page is that their map of property already sold on Mars is upside down! The following story from CNN news tells about two men from Yemen that claim Mars is theirs.