The Silent Scream of the Asparagus (plant rights)

The Weekly Standard ^ | 05/12/2008 | Wesley J. Smith

[AngieGal]

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.

[gunservative]

The question I have is: Will women eventually be able to marry a cucumber?

[RedDogzRule]

What’ll the pot-heads smoke now? That’s like the conundrum of what to do if one endangered species is killing another one. I don’t know how these radical libs can get through life obsessively worrying about every little thing. Glad I ain’t one.

[calex59]

Right, don't want to eat those carrots. Let's see, we can't eat meat, it will impugn the rights of animals and we can't eat plants, so I guess we just starve and the world goes on. Right, I got it, but don't expect me to live by it.

Come get me socialist, environmentalist jerks, I will be waiting for you!

[messierhunter]

Yet another tool has been forged against individual liberty and freedom. The swiss have decided that you don't actually own your plants, so therefore you are not free to do whatever you want with your property. You call it "weeding," they'll call it a massacre. It's also useful as a tool to further the voluntary extinction movement. It's already considered "immoral" by lefty loonies to eat meat (damn those carnivores, they're so evil), but now they have a "scientific consensus" that can be directly extrapolated to mean that it's immoral to eat any kind of fauna (damn those vegitarians, they're so evil). Therefore, it's immoral for humans to eat anything and we should kill our species to prevent it from eating. The self-hating lunacy of the libs knows no bounds.

[HereInTheHeartland]

“We are living in the post-rational world where being a moron is an asset.”

It might even get someone elected president.

Long live Chauncey Gardner....

[holymoly]

the arbitrary killing of flora is morally wrong

I'm going to murder a whole field FULL of "flora" tomorrow afternoon, with 2-4D!

Hahahahahahahaha!!!

[6SJ7]

We are living in the post-rational world where being a moron is an asset.

Ain't that the freakin' truth.

---

Think I'll make a beef kabob on the grill. That way I can offend PETA, the Plant Protection League, and use up all my carbon credits for the decade.

[RedDogzRule]

Yeah, but doctor-assisted suicide is legal there. A friend of mine did that there with his terminally ill mother.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

If our idiot liberal congress adopts this, does it mean I don’t have to cut my lawn any longer?

[KarlInOhio]

PETAphiles don’t want us to eat meat of any form (not even eggs), and now these yahoos want to stop us from eating vegetables of any sort. WTH are we supposed to eat?

Soylent Green ... the food that doesn't cry.

Remember, Tuesday is Soylent Green Day.

[AngieGal]

I was glad to hear it, but it looks like that’s changed...
from Wikipedia:

Abortion in Switzerland is legal during the first trimester, upon condition of counseling, for women who state that they are in distress. It is also legal with medical indications – threat of severe physical or psychological damage to the mother – at any later time.”

“Up until 2002, abortion was – technically – legally available in Switzerland only with restrictive medical indications. A constitutional amendment to legalise abortion in the first trimester was narrowly defeated in a popular referendum in 1977. However, in 1978 and 1985, initiatives for constitutional amendments aiming at making abortion harder to obtain were also defeated by a wide margin at the ballot box.”

[Hacklehead]

I think it was the Swiss who started the whole “Spanking is Child abuse” BS. Now it’s everywhere. Plants rights may follow.

[workerbee]

No, it’s not illegal there. They recently changed their more restrictive laws to allow for first trimester abortion at will. After that you have to show a medical “emergency” or “distress.”

[STONEWALLS]

....folks I used to scoff at this kind of nonsense...now I stop and read it...I had a little moment of clarity when my attorney daughter told me that the fastest growing area of law taught in law schools is:...are you ready for this?...Animal Rights Law!!....I don’t have to tell Freepers where this is heading....if PETA and others have their way we’ll never eat another steak....so it comes as no surprise that “plant rights” are in the on-deck circle.

[stuartcr]

Are they going to prosecute all cows for eating hay?

[AngieGal]

A little more from Wiki:

The criminal prohibition on nonindicated abortions essentially ceased to be enforced towards the turn of the 20th century. Abortions could be easily obtained through the cooperation of physicians, especially in the more urban cantons. In 1995, the Swiss Federal Assembly enacted an amendment to the penal code providing for the first-trimester-rule as outlined above.

Conservative parties and interest groups collected the 50,000 voters’ signatures required to force a popular referendum on the amendment. The vote was held on 2 June 2002, with 72.2% of Swiss voters supporting the change in law.

Legal abortions are now covered by the mandatory health care insurance scheme. Insured women cannot opt out from this coverage.

Statistics

In 2005, 15% of all pregnancies in Switzerland were terminated by abortion.

[wbill]

This is satire, right? Has to be.

[chainsaw]

I’m glad to read this. Now I won’t have to mow the grass.

[WayneS]

I used to work on a vegetable farm and you would not believe the inhumane ways in which the plants were treated.

They were left outside with no shelter. When it rained, they got wet. On hot days they suffered from dehydration, with little or no shade to be had. They were forced to stay outside in the field under even the hottest mid-day sun. And they were planted in DIRT. Can you believe it? DIRT!

Then, when these long suffering plants finally bore fruit, their young off-spring were RIPPED from their vines with never so much as a thank you. I don’t even want to think about the grisly fate that faced these poor vegetables after they were packed together like sardines in bushel baskets and hauled to market in unventilated trucks.

I’m told that many of them were skinned alive, cooked and eaten. Other vegetables, depending on their variety were not even KILLED before being devoured by humans.

RAW peaches. RAW lettuce. RAW tomatoes. The list of atrocity’s goes on and on. Why, one might even be able to go so far as to call it GENOCIDE.

I could only take SO much, though. Eventually, the things I was being asked to do (”pick” squash; “cut” melons; “harvest” sweet corn) sickened me to the point where I knew I had to get away for the sake of my immortal soul. So I went to college and became an engineer, leaving the life of a vegetable slave trader behind.

That was more than 20 years ago, but even to this day I’m still haunted by nightmares of those poor, helpless vegetables.

I only hope that God can forgive me for the part I took in this reprehensible trade.

[Steely Tom]

From last week.