Killing Plants Morally Wrong

[Louisiana Lady]

I wasn't sure where to post this article I heard about on the news this morning. It was to ridicules to post in the News and Events section. Maybe it needed to go in the Jokes section. ;D


Discussion on ethics blooms as Swiss experts debate the merits of killing plants

GENEVA: Plants deserve respect, a group of Swiss experts has said, arguing that killing them arbitrarily is morally wrong.

In a report on "the dignity of the creature in the plant world", the federal ethics committee on non-human gene technology condemned the decapitation of flowers without reason, among other sins.

The commission weighed such cruel acts case-by-case, said member Bernard Baertsche. "The pleasure of picking the petals off a daisy might suffice as a reason."

But "all action that involves plants in the aim to conserve the human species is morally justified", said the commission, tasked to offer an ethical take on biotechnology and genetic engineering.

It did not object to genetic engineering as this did not threaten plants' capacity to reproduce. A minority of its members objected to the patenting of plants. The majority said this did not infringe on "their moral value". - Sapa-AFP

Published on the web by Cape Times on April 15, 2008.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Cape Times 2008. All rights reserved.

[earl]

If it doesn't have a soul, it can be killed.

[bearhunter]

A soul? How did we get from botany to theology so quickly? Earl if you can kill anything without a soul and not be morally wrong, then it would be fine to kill humans, wouldn't it?
And on a related topic, if we're all supposed to be vegetarians, why are animals made of meat?

[earl]

It's a rule of thumb I live by when drinking cans in the back of a pick-up, driving around with my buddies, armed with a rifle and shotgun.