MORALS, WHO NEEDS 'EM?
Well, we do, all of us. They may even be built into our genes. And monkeys and apes need then to a degree as well!

Morals were once the preserve of philosophy and psychology in terms of investigation and analysis. But morals are very close cousins to empathy. If you are aware of the feelings and needs of others, have a degree of "sympathetic" feeling for them, the chances are you have a reasonably moral personality as well.

This is basic morals I am talking about here, survival stuff, "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." Respecting other people and their property, respecting the laws that attempt to formulate those morals.. This is not about same sex relationships and other than "normal" sexual practices - though those would be anti-survival if all indulged only in them.

Eleven years ago scientists discovered "mirror neurons", cells that "fire" when we mimic the actions of others, like waving your arms in the air when your team scores (or covering your face with your hands when they fluff that critical goal) as a group action. Researchers, using functional MRI scanners that plot neurons that fire under specific stimuli, have now observed this phenomena. During research into epilepsy they asked the patients in the scanner to watch a video and copy what the person on it was doing. As they did so the neurons became active.

Monkeys and chimpanzees that were tested also had this mirror neuron, but this was the first time that it had been observed to be active in man.

This could have an evolutionary survival basis. Early primates that reacted together, united, when facing a common threat had a better chance of surviving than those which did not. The possession of such traits would have been passed on to future generations, and mankind's original gene pool was probably not that large.

Further reading:
New Scientist article (abbreviated): http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg19626294.600-source-of-human-empathy-found-in-brain.html
Wikipedia (mirror neurons and empathy-morals linking):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy
Essay (lots of citations):
http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/evolpsych.html