This is a necessary presumption. A dying moral being (moral being = person), must be given baptism even by lay persons. The rule for baptism is “When certain, do or don’t; when uncertain, give the sacrament.”. A manufactured alien moral species could appear at any time, anywhere and priests and lay people would then have to determine if that being is a person (a moral being), or a non person. Could an escaped moral ape be euthanized? The owner of a moral service ape might rightfully seek to enroll the moral ape into RCIA classes.
Soon this sort of decision will need to be made, yet no moral guidelines are available. Any being making moral decisions (even an ape with only a mortal soul), either promotes God’s plan or thwarts it by its good or evil acts, and therefore at a minimum must receive moral instruction, which references God’s moral design. The idea of human evolution is accepted as plausible by the Church, and this is essentially the God directed process of making an ape into a moral man.