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
- » Get Planetsave by RSS or sign up by email.
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
Lets put laws in to protect all species of plant and animal as well as all of Earth’s resources… That will leave humans on the bottom of the food chain. The same food chain that does not adhere to human laws. Which in the end brings the downfall of humanity…
Laws like these and the people that support them are the true threat to human survival in the modern world.
It’s official, the greenies have OFFICIALLY gone off the deep end!
I am curious how this ruling impacts plain old fruits and vegetables for consumption.
See Steven Pinker’s article “The Stupidity of Dignity” -
http://www.tnr.com/story_print.html?id=d8731cf4-e87b-4d88-b7e7-f5059cd0bfbd
I clicked a link that said I have won a free pineapple…. Where my free pineapple??
I promise to be nice to it.
I think it’s better to spend money on a question like that than to manufacture bombs and fight never ending wars. Most of you people bashing this exagerate beyond any reason.. You think this is the only thing people are working on here? This is just one of many fundamental philosophical questions that our future *might* depend on. It sounds weird, who cares? You can still eat your apple without getting a ticket.. Jeez. How naive are you (bashing) guys? Is this so hard to get..?
Please, widen your horizon..
Ignorance and stupidity in politics isn t just for the USofA any longer.
fabulous news.
You people have too much time on your hands. While you were busy fulminating about flora, I was enjoying a tasty salad.
Try living for a change.
i would also suggest punishing wolves that kill other animals, because they are violating the latter’s right to the pursuit of happiness