Eat Your Veggies

Well, it was bound to come, the push for rights given to...plants. Yes, that carrot stick you ate today, it felt pain, whether you noticed it or not. You might think this is total nonsense (which it is), yet apparently the Swiss government would disagree. An ethnics panel has deemed plants should be treated properly, given it is a living organism. Click here for more.

You just knew it was coming: At the request of the Swiss government, an ethics panel has weighed in on the "dignity" of plants and opined that the arbitrary killing of flora is morally wrong. This is no hoax. The concept of what could be called "plant rights" is being seriously debated.

A few years ago the Swiss added to their national constitution a provision requiring "account to be taken of the dignity of creation when handling animals, plants and other organisms." No one knew exactly what it meant, so they asked the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology to figure it out. The resulting report, "The Dignity of Living Beings with Regard to Plants," is enough to short circuit the brain.

A "clear majority" of the panel adopted what it called a "biocentric" moral view, meaning that "living organisms should be considered morally for their own sake because they are alive." Thus, the panel determined that we cannot claim "absolute ownership" over plants and, moreover, that "individual plants have an inherent worth." This means that "we may not use them just as we please, even if the plant community is not in danger, or if our actions do not endanger the species, or if we are not acting arbitrarily."

I wonder, will anybody stand up for the rights of a tapeworm?

After reading that, I'm going to double my veggie intake today and possibly pull a flower out of the ground (oh, I'm hardcore).

Where I found this article:
The Weekly Standard Blog