Get ready for "the dignity of plants"

[TNHermit]

We've laughed off then have been forced to accept everything else PC as it came along. So here is the latest thing they are going to cram down your throat

The Silent Scream of the Asparagus

Get ready for 'plant rights.'
by Wesley J. Smith
05/12/2008, Volume 013, Issue 33

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."

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.

What is clear, however, is that Switzerland's enshrining of "plant dignity" is a symptom of a cultural disease that has infected Western civilization, causing us to lose the ability to think critically and distinguish serious from frivolous ethical concerns. It also reflects the triumph of a radical anthropomorphism that views elements of the natural world as morally equivalent to people.

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.

Continued

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Conten...njdoe.asp?pg=1
The intellectual elites were the first to accept the notion of "species-ism," which condemns as invidious discrimination treating people differently from animals simply because they are human beings. Then ethical criteria were needed for assigning moral worth to individuals, be they human, animal, or now vegetable.

Rising to the task, leading bioethicists argue that for a human, value comes from possessing sufficient cognitive abilities to be deemed a "person." This excludes the unborn, the newborn, and those with significant cognitive impairments, who, personhood theorists believe, do not possess the right to life or bodily integrity. This thinking has led to the advocacy in prestigious medical and bioethical journals of using profoundly brain impaired patients in medical experimentation or as sources of organs.

[Farmerwilly2]

It only proves that life has gotten too soft for some folks. When you take away all of lifes obstacles and strife you end up with folks thinking goofy.

I also found their anthem by Traffic (it's much better with the flute):

YouTube

There were three men came out of the West,
Their fortunes for to try,
And these three men made a solemn vow:
John Barleycorn must die.

They’ve ploughed, they’ve sewn, they’ve harrowed him in,
Threw clods at Barley’s head,
And these three men made a solemn vow:
John Barleycorn was dead.

They’ve let him lie for a very long time,
‘Till the rains from heaven did fall,
And little Sir John sprung up his head,
And so amazed them all.

They’ve let him stand ‘till midsummer’s day,
‘Till he looked both pale and worn,
And little Sir John’s grown a long, long beard,
And so become a man.

They’ve hired men with the scythes so sharp,
To cut him off at the knee,
They’ve rolled him and tied him by the waist,
Servin’ him most barbarously.

They’ve hired men with the sharp pitchforks,
Who pricked him to the heart,
And the loader he has served him worse than that,
For he’s bound him to the cart

They’ve wheeled him around and around the field,
‘Till they came unto a barn,
And there they made a solemn oath,
On poor John Barleycorn.

They’ve hired men with the crab-tree sticks,
To cut him skin from bone,
And the miller he has served him worse than that,
For he’s ground him between two stones.

And little Sir John and the nut-brown bowl,
And he’s brandy in the glass;
And little Sir John and the nut-brown bowl,
Proved the strongest man at last.

The huntsman, he can’t hunt the fox,
Nor so loudly to blow his horn,
And the tinker he can’t mend kettle nor pots,
Without a little Barleycorn

[CaliannG]

Might I agree AND disagree in the same post?

I violently reject the Judeo-Christian world view.....and I think this stuff is crazier than all get out.

I do not think this stems from the accelerated rejection of the Judeo-Christian world view. I think it comes from a mass confusion of *respecting* the world we happen to live upon...and believing everything ON that world should be treated equally.

I can respect the broccoli I grow as a living thing, and be grateful that while it ceases to live when I pick it, that it gives me the ability to live on....without wanting to figure out a way to give it the vote.

I also think that this is what happens to a country that has spent a couple of centuries without any large, natural predator due to the fact they drove them all to extinction. If the Swiss still had packs of wolves that would occasionally consider a patch of flowers a good place to tear up and take a nap in, they wouldn't have this attitude. Also, watching a wolf pack go for a roe deer is very education for learning the natural order of things...including dignity.

I might add that Switzerland has only 9% (unlike Sweden at 23%) of their population that postulates that there is no Deity; while the U.S. has 15% of our population claiming that God does not exist. 77.59% of the Swiss attend a Church that believes in the resurrection of Jesus Christ; this is comparable to the 78.5% of U.S. citizens that do the same.

When it comes to the religious beliefs of the general population, the Swiss are within a single percentage point to us when it comes to Christians, and have fewer atheists. I don't think this silliness stems from their "rejection of the Judeo-Christian world view", since we are not seeing such parallels, and our population is doing some heavy rejection at a faster rate.

*nods sagely, then winks and grinz* It's lack of predators, I tell you. Coming face-to-face with wolves, mountain lions, leopards, coyotes, or whatever big predators a land has, changes a person's views on the rights of plants to dignity.

[TonyE]

[Windy in Kansas]

Genesis, chapter 1, verse 28 KJV--And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and HAVE DOMINION over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, AND OVER EVERY LIVING THING THAT MOVETH UPON THE EARTH.

Its either that or we are out of food and time to set the NUKES off throughout the world.

[Jenn]

Isn't this- immoral farmer aside- really about companies not copyrighting genetic material?

[seedspreader]

Romans 1:21-25 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

[Farmerwilly2]

Plants rights? They must be crazy as outhouse rats. On the other hand, to hack and slash and tromp on a plant 'just cause' is equally crazy. Mindless destruction for its own sake is some form of insanity.

[MariaAZ]

Originally Posted by TNHermit

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."

First think I thought when I read this is it sounds like a ban on GMOs.

[Windy in Kansas]

The farmer in the story cut down some wildflowers. What are wildflowers? It depend upon where they are, what they are, and in the eye of the beholder may very well be absolutely nothing but weeds.

Kudzu was recently discussed in another thread. Few disagreed that it provides an attractive form and has nice blossoms and to some a pleasant smell. However most would agree that it is entirely a weed even though some use it for livestock feed.

Animal rights, plant's rights, what about human rights?

[Scrounger]

As a human, I have the right to kill, and use as I see fit, any animal - or plant - that God has deemed usable to me for the purpose I killed it for.

[trixiwick]

Originally Posted by Farmerwilly2

Plants rights? They must be crazy as outhouse rats. On the other hand, to hack and slash and tromp on a plant 'just cause' is equally crazy. Mindless destruction for its own sake is some form of insanity.

[Wayne02]

Vegetable cruelty is serious business. It's all fun and games until you put yourself the shoes, whoops I mean dirt, of that radish you are yanking from the ground... Ever thought about how that must feel to the poor radish...

http://www.vegetablecruelty.com/about/

[Scrounger]

Good thing the lawnmower is so load. I'd hate to hear all that grass scream.....

Ranks right up there with the PETA wackos....

[Truckinguy]

Good thing the lawnmower is so load. I'd hate to hear all that grass scream.....

That's funny......almost passed coffee out my nose when I read that......hehehe

[AJ Williams]

These people need to be dropped in the dark ages when plants and animals were for medicine, food or work. Stupid is as stupid does!

[TNHermit]

Originally Posted by AJ Williams

These people need to be dropped in the dark ages when plants and animals were for medicine, food or work. Stupid is as stupid does!

Better yet drop them off in the age when people were food for the animals and giant venus fly traps. But that would probably only strengthen their case

[sancraft]

Does this mean that they won't be able to get a Christmas tree in Switzerland? I guess they could get a plastic one, but wait. Plasitc is made using fossil fuels, which were once living organisms, thus can't be used. Is that right? Oh shoot, I think I'll just sit in the corner and suck my thumb. Bot maybe I'll be violating the rights of my digits not to get wet and spitty. Oh, I'm so confused.