From:  mac
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On: 2008/05/05 19:51:54
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Plants' Rights
It isn't just the rights of animals that some are promoting. The Weekly Standard reports an ethics panel in Switzerland is expressing concern that the arbitrary killing of plants is morally wrong. The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology says that humans cannot claim "absolute ownership" over plants; that "individual plants have an inherent worth," and that man may not use them as he pleases.
It cites a hypothetical example of a farmer "decapitating" wildflowers as expressing a moral stance toward the organism and possibly doing something bad to the flowers themselves.
One critic of the report says the concept of plant dignity provides what he called "another tool of opponents to argue against any form of plant biotechnology."
http://www.gopa...ts.php?DiscussionID=16946&page=1
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From: stone5150
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On: 2008/05/05 22:38:53
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What about PETR, damn humans abuse rocks terribly and something needs to be done!
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From: Rem
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On: 2008/05/05 23:02:16
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If we stop using rocks to build ourselves a place to live, and stop eating meat because that kills animals and at the same time stop using plants for similar reasons, we will die.
In that event, our bodies will be eaten by animals, covered with rocks and plants (implicitely claiming ownership over the human body).
This is WAR guys. It's the plant or us.
Eat the damned plants.
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From: Pino Carafa
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On: 2008/05/06 01:53:36
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I'm finding it hard to work out who is crazier, the Swiss, or the people who added this to that article:
"Why is this happening? Our accelerating rejection of the Judeo-Christian world view, which upholds the unique dignity and moral worth of human beings, is driving us crazy. Once we knocked our species off its pedestal, it was only logical that we would come to see fauna and flora as entitled to rights."
The Judeo-Christian God is a figment of the imagination, but rest assured that I feel absolutely NO pang of conscience when I go out every day to decapitate and uproot the dandelions in my lawn. Anybody who thinks that this Swiss lunacy is the result of rejecting the "Judeo-Christian world view" is stark raving bat shit crazy themselves. I shall stop ranting now.
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From: JOK
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On: 2008/05/06 02:41:15
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>>I shall stop ranting now.
I suspect tis only a passing lull
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From: Pino Carafa
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On: 2008/05/06 02:55:39
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LOL
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From: Pino Carafa
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On: 2008/05/06 02:55:52
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You know me so well
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From: JOK
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On: 2008/05/06 03:43:33
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And, while we're at it, God is not a figment of the imagination. It is an epiphenomenon of the brain.
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From: Hooligan
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On: 2008/05/06 03:48:37
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Absolutely agree with them, there is no right to pointlessly wipe out or cause to become extinct a plant.
In the UK a tree has more protection than an insect, or a rat, even a stag possibly.
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From: Rem
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On: 2008/05/06 03:58:01
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For lunch I had
1 a green salad
2 meat cooked on a fire heated flat stone in the garden
3 this of course with a nice little wine (de pays).
I don't give a d... that I "murdered" a salad, nor do I feel responsible for the death of a cow, nor do I feel sorry for the stone which must have suffered from the fire.
And I'm not even talking about the grapes savagely pressed to make wine.
I love this country, they really got their food right.
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From: stone5150
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On: 2008/05/06 05:34:54
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It is just another case of wrong target.
Some megacorps slash and burn a rainforest, poison the water with toxins and kills off everything with more than 2 legs, so the next logical step is to punish regular citizens for killing dandelions and throwing an aluminium can in the trash bin.
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From: Pino Carafa
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On: 2008/05/06 05:38:35
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LOL. How true.
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From: Pino Carafa
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On: 2008/05/06 05:39:00
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And thanks for clearing that up, JOK, 
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From: PaulHews
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On: 2008/05/06 07:57:37
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Once upon a time, people laughed at the idea that black people deserved the same rights a white people, or that women should get the vote.
I'm not saying the situation is equivalent, but simply pointing out that new modes of thought may require some consideration rather than the same old knee jerk.
The idea that the wanton destruction of living things is immoral may be surprising to some, but it really shouldn't be.
If you catch a fish to feed your family, there isn't anything immoral about it. If you dynamite a stream and kill off thousands of the fish just for one or two fish to feed your family, that's unnecessary, and should be considered immoral. This is one of the problems I have with the east coast seal hunt in my country.
The same goes for plants. Farming and harvesting food to feed people is in the natural order of things. But a teenager who destroys trees in the city by cutting off their bark is doing wrong—not just because of property damage.
One of the things mentioned in the Swiss report is the "instrumentation" of plants. This is pertinent to the new biotech trend of producing designer seed that does not reproduce. While I consider it a dangerous money grab that has serious implications on the future of the human race, I don't see any insult to plant dignity here.
As a species, we're seeing the impact of our actions on the environment. Cancer rates and extinction rates continue to climb. The rape of natural resources continues unabated. While I don't agree with everything in the report, I think it's laudable to start thinking in terms of the inherent value in living things.
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From: shekerra
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On: 2008/05/06 09:21:12
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Rem, you are so practical.
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From: Pino Carafa
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On: 2008/05/07 05:54:27
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If you put it like that, Paul, it makes a lot of sense.
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From: stone5150
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On: 2008/05/07 07:59:39
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With over 6 billion people on the planet now, the time for thinking that humans own everything and can do whatever they want with it is long over.
We are no longer just hunting things to extinction over several decades in order to feed our encroaching cities, we are wiping out entire ecosystems in a matter of days to make Happy Meal toys and sprawling McMansions for yuppies that can't actually afford them.
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From: JOK
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On: 2008/05/07 08:26:28
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Let them eat McCake
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From: Hooligan
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On: 2008/05/08 06:58:16
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hug a tree today, you know it makes sense.
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From: muso
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On: 2008/05/09 03:04:01
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Interesting, and a good post Paul.
Off the topic of rocks and vegetables, I saw this recently:
http://youtube....ch?v=QDDrz7E8-AA&feature=related
Not all exploitation is bad for the ecosystem, after all...
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From: Huntress
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On: 2008/05/09 08:13:26
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Yeah, we Swiss are always looking for some lost cause or another...
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From: JOK
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On: 2008/05/09 10:55:12
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>>>Yeah, we Swiss are always looking for some lost cause or another...
It probably fell out through the holes in the cheese.
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From: Huntress
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On: 2008/05/09 13:31:59
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From: shekerra
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On: 2008/05/09 19:08:25
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I am more worried about the bees
http://www.vanishingbees.com/
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From: JOK
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On: 2008/05/10 01:17:41
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and the bats. Don't forget about the bats. They're dying too!
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