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?
- » See also: Google to Fight Deforestation from Space
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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
Is this article from The Onion?
I shall be oh so worried about the dignity of weeds growing in my lawn and driveway as I spray weed killer on them. Perhaps I shall allow for a funeral afterwards. What a load of fertilizer!!! I needed a good laugh today, and think I have met my quota for the year. Suppose I shall give Peas a chance and shall provide a therapist for them before I place them in a pot of boiling water. What is the proper protocol when picking fruits off of the vine? How can one harvest vegetables without having them loosing their dignity as they are pulled up out of the ground having the sun shine on them in places previously covered over? The poor naked vegetables on display at the market, I can almost hear their screams.
I killed thousands of beans this weekend, and an unknown number of corn kernels via boiling that might have sprouted on their own and grown into productive members of an ear. Should I have not done that?
Our world is in peril. Gaia, the spirit of the Earth, can no longer stand the terrible destruction plaguing our planet. She gives five special rings to five special young people. From Africa, Kwame with the power of earth. From the North America, Wheeler with the power of fire. From the Soviet Union, Linka with the power of wind. From Asia, Gi with the power of water and from South America, Ma-Ti with the power of heart.
Is this why we have to pretend to listen to Jenny McCarthy?
Things like plants cannot be humiliated because they have no cognitive ability. Whats more is the idea of inherent value in ANYTHING is ludicrous as all value is given to other things via HUMAN perception of the object in questions personal value to the man in question. Value is an internalized concept and a completely subjective evaluation. NOTHING has inherent value outside of MANS evaluation.
Surely I cannot be the only one who sees this as a huge stepping stone to controlling the peoples of Switzerland’s very food supply, starving them or placing them on strict government approved diets for their own good and of course for the ’sanctity’ of the damn plants.
Being opposed to waste is good.
Imbuing plants with rights or dignity is simply insane.
Think about it next time you need antibiotics to save your life (WMD in plant-speak).
gunnivere: that may be true but in the actuality of enforcement, it WILL turn into a motherlode of material for stand up comedians.
jeezuz. moral dignity of a plant??? where do they come up with this stuff? you DON’T do it this way to protect huge swaths of forest from wanton destruction. what you do is to regulate the forestry industry as is done in some places.
‘humiliation’ of an amoeba next on the roster.
Last week I cut my lawn and applied weedkiller to my driveway.
The screams of a million dead souls still resonates in my brain, a deathshriek ringing with untold pain and agony..
So, let me get this straight. Plants have rights. Unborn children do not. Decapitating a plant is wrong. Aborting a child is not.
This is one messed up world.