The ethical case for changing the way we treat nonhuman animals is gaining ground. Two federal policy developments last year are evidence that U.S. officials are responding to arguments for elevating the moral and legal status of certain species: chimpanzees, gorillas, and other great apes. The policy actions show that society is beginning to see these species, our closest nonhuman relatives, as less like property and more like beings entitled to respect and protection. One significant development is a congressional bill called the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act of 2011. A second is the decision in late 2011 by National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins to support an Institute of Medicine committee report that labeled nearly all of the existing uses of chimpanzees in biomedical and behavioral research “unnecessary.”