There’s a qualitative difference between humans and other animals and that difference is due to language.
It isn’t due to language. The difference you describe is based on imagination and the ability to understand future consequences. We wouldn’t consider a moral difference between those examples and cases where the subject was able to arrive at the same understanding based off observation, reasoning or memories of past experiences. Language is relevant in only in as much as it is one of the ways that people can arrive at the models of reality and understanding of the future that we consider important.
It isn’t due to language. The difference you describe is based on imagination and the ability to understand future consequences. We wouldn’t consider a moral difference between those examples and cases where the subject was able to arrive at the same understanding based off observation, reasoning or memories of past experiences. Language is relevant in only in as much as it is one of the ways that people can arrive at the models of reality and understanding of the future that we consider important.