Switzerland Places Ban on the Humiliation of Plants
A new amended law in Switzerland protects the dignity of vegetation.
A law protecting the dignity of plants? Laugh if you will. I’m down on my knees in respect and awe. At last the Western World is realizing the dire importance of taking other species into account.
Recently, the Swiss Parliament asked a panel of philosophers, lawyers, geneticists and theologians to determine the meaning of dignity when it pertains to plants.
Lo and Behold, the team published a treatise on “the moral consideration of plants for their own sake.” The treatise established that vegetation has innate value and that it is morally wrong to partake in activities such as the “decapitation of wildflowers at the roadside without rational reason.”
Over a decade ago, an amendment was added to the Swiss constitution in order to defend the dignity of all creatures — including vegetation — against unwanted repercussions of genetic engineering. The amendment was turned into law and is known as the Gene Technology Act. However the law itself didn’t say anything specific about plants, until recently, when the law was amended to include them.
The obvious question at hand: how does this new ruling affect the production of genetically modified organisms?
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Beat Keller is a molecular biologist at the University of Zurich. Keller recently asked permission of the government to conduct a field trial of a genetically modified wheat bred with a resistance to fungus. In order to actually gain permission to go ahead with the trial, he needed to hash out the potential threats to the dignity of the wheat.
The majority of the panel agrees that genetically modified plants are ok, “as long as their independence, i.e., reproductive ability and adaptive ability, are ensured.” In other words, no forced sterility and terminator genes.
And Keller did, in the end, get to plant his GMO grain.
“Where does it stop?” asks Yves Poirier, a molecular biologist at the laboratory of plant biotechnology at the University of Lausanne. “Should we now defend the dignity of microbes and viruses?”
And even though I think it’s a great law, where does it stop? How humiliated is a boiled potato? A peeled carrot? Corn turned into a lowly, tortilla chip meant for dipping?
Source: Wall Street Journal
Photo: Wikimedia under a Creative Commons Lisence
There’s another term for the “humiliation” of plants: Wanton Destruction For No Good Reason is what the Swiss Parliament is talking about and trying to prohibit. The dignity of plants is part of - and inseparable from - the dignity of all life. Bringing about the pointless destruction of any species, including vegetation, just because one can, is arrant hubris. Humankind has gone much too far already toward self-extinction by fouling our own world until we cannot survive the poisons with which we’ve laced the environment. I actually think the Swiss law is too little… and too late.
Beautiful post Guinnevere.
Good blog post!
My daughter’s name is Guinevere!
~Hyla
Although it may seem irrational at the moment, I’d rather err on the side of protection.
That is fascinating. I don’t think “dignity” would sell too well here in the U.S. We Americans are followers, not reasoners, so if a plant dignity law were to have a chance in this country it should not come with an explanation. Explanations are elitist. Following is doubleplusgood.
I understand why certain people may want to respect or not respect the plant life on the planet. But to make a law about this type of respect is ridiculous. why do plants need legal protection? is the claim that they have interests to protect? or that we have interests in protecting them? i hope it is the latter. still, if we have interests, they do not lie in dignity or humility, but in use. so the law, which also takes proper aim at GMOs, is absurd to mandate general respect towards plants.
Guinnevere, you have your head so far up your ass that it’s coming out at your shoulders again.
===Bringing about the pointless destruction of any species, including vegetation, just because one can===
Nobody brings about the destruction of any species “just because one can”, so that’s a bogus argument.
===Humankind has gone much too far already toward self-extinction===
Ah, you’re not so much interested in the “inherent dignity” (whatever that means) of plants than you are their utility to mankind. That’s a horse of a different color.
Still, I’m a little concerned with the day when we can’t kill a cockroach when we see it, or stop an infection, because, after all, germs have inherent dignity, too.
Awww boo hoo Guinnevere. I am going to have you tried for murder next time you step on a bug. Or bugslaughter, at the very least. And you WILL like it.
I hate to break up the Gaia lovefest, but does anyone else think that suggesting picking flowers is a threat to humanity’s survival might be a bit of hyperbole?