This is one of those stories that just show clearly how upside down the world is, that any tether to reality has thinned to the point of snapping.
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, according to the Weekly Standard.
This is not a joke. I know you’re thinking that I’m just making up stories but this is real. The concept of “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.”
The committee offered this illustration: A farmer mows his field (apparently an acceptable action, perhaps because the hay is intended to feed the farmer’s herd–the report doesn’t say). But then, while walking home, he casually “decapitates” some wildflowers with his scythe. The panel decries this act as immoral, though its members can’t agree why. The report states, opaquely:
At this point it remains unclear whether this action is condemned because it expresses a particular moral stance of the farmer toward other organisms or because something bad is being done to the flowers themselves.
Mind you that about 15% of all pregnancies in Switzerland are terminated by abortion. The law states that for a woman in Switzerland to procure an abortion (even late term) they must state that they are in distress -which includes threat of severe physical or psychological damage to the mother.
Now back to the farmer who decapitated the flowers. Shouldn’t we take into account the emotional distress those flowers were causing him?
In a sane world, we wouldn’t be having these conversations. We are, however, not residing in one. My hope, however, resides in the future, that some anonymous man in the 24th century will read old news articles and laugh uproriously as to how insane everyone was way back when.
May 13, 2008 at 7:19 pm
This is truly crazy. I really fear that Western civilization is doomed.
May 13, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Some Catholic should challenge the abortion law there in Switzerland by citing this Biocentric Law reference herein.
How ironic would that be? 🙂
May 13, 2008 at 8:17 pm
brings a whole new understanding to “plants have feelings” but absolutely right, if plant can have rights, a baby from the moment of conception should have rights as well.
May 13, 2008 at 9:25 pm
I’m going to mow my lawn now. I’ll listen for the screams!
May 13, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Well, decapitating the flowers WOULD be poor stewardship if you were doing it out of spite (As opposed to taking them to church to adorn a statue of Our Lady or taking them home for your wife…)
Perhaps if they framed the debate in terms of stewardship rather than “Plant Rights?”
Mowing lawn– appropriate, since it involves the proper use of your gifts.
Wantonly poisoning your wife’s Rosebush because you’re sick of having to mow around it — Bad. Not because the rose screams, but because you’re destroying it for no good reason.
Cutting down a forest to build roads, houses, farms to feed hungry -OK
Cutting down a forest because a woodpecker looked at you funny — Bad
Of course, this seems more a matter for the confessional than for a government sponsored panel…..
May 13, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Wait a second. I could tell my wife I refuse to mow because of my bio-sensitivity. “Can’t you hear their screams, honey?” I’ll act like the Indian from that commercial. I’ll stand on my back porch and shed a tear while my wife mows the lawn.
May 14, 2008 at 4:13 am
You mean your wife doesn’t mow the lawn? You weak-kneed male putz chained to the apron of an oppressor amazon, you! I bet she makes you get up and get your own beer, too. Say it! SAAAAY IIIIT!!!
Bob Hunt
May 14, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Funny.
May 14, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Seriously, this truly is disturbing. It’s more evidence of the moral insanity of which so many in the West suffer. Our priorities are completely askew because we’ve lost our sense of our unique dignity as humans. We deny that we are unique, which is partly what the creation stories in Genesis are about. We’ve rejected Genesis. Instead, we claim to possess no more dignity than plants, animals, or rocks.
Did you guys see “The Bee Movie”? Remember the scene where the boyfriend, who was allergic to bees, was trying to stomp the bee caught in his girlfriend’s apartment? She rescued the poor little bee and asked the mean man, why is your life more important than his? (Or something like that). That’s what this foolishness in Switzerland is about. We’re no more important than bees and plants. Maybe we’re less important because, after all, we destroy things.
I’ve never heard in all of history of a people that brought on their own end by convincing themselves that the world would be better off without them. Isn’t that called suicidal ideation? Isn’t that called insanity? We’re very close.
I had a long talk with my daughter after that movie.
Bob Hunt