Andrew Wetzler's Blog
Moral Consideration for Plants?
June 18, 2008
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Living Sustainably , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Do we have any ethical obligations towards plants? Recently, a Swiss government panel addressed this very question--and concluded that we do.
Conservative publications, like the Weekly Standard, were predictably derisive about the whole notion. But I’m not so sure. We already--and rightly--recognize that plant species should be protected under laws like the Endangered Species Act. And last week the New York Times reported on the growing scientific evidence that plants perceptual and behavior abilities are far more complex than previously known. One scientist quoted in the article said that plants “have a secret social life.” There’s even an--albeit controvercial--Society of Plant Neorobiology composed of scientists who study plant behavior.
My intuition is that, as living things (and ones that are probably far more sentient than we realize) plants are due at least minimal moral consideration. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have the least problem with our use of plants--hell, I’m not even a vegetarian--but the Swiss panel’s basic conclusion that that we ought not to harm plants “arbitrarily” (according to the report, “[t]his kind of treatment would include, e.g. decapitation of wild flowers at the roadside without rational reason”) seems about right to me.
What do you think?
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Comments
John — Jun 18 2008 04:25 PM
I think that we have an ethical obligation not to drive plant species to extinction. That would make it part of a general ethic of not causing undue harm to the natural world. Curbing the spread of invasive species that harm plants could also be seen in that ethical framework. I'm not sure I would extend it much beyond that.
Chris Milton — Jun 27 2008 12:12 PM
Yesterday (was it?) the UK Government announced measures to make it illegal to discriminate on the grounds of age or gender.
From the moral point of view it is equally distasteful to discriminate against forms of life which we do not fully comprehend or understand.
Plants are obviously different to different age/gender/race ... for starters they are not, and never shall be, part of human society.
However, we need to be careful. Once White Man's opinion was that the Black Man was intellectually inferior ... Women were told by Men to Know Your Place and Stay In The Kitchen.
I'm not advocating Full Rights For Vegetables or anything quite like that. However, it may be worth reflecting for a moment that most (all?) vegetables are cooked while still alive. There's not much difference therefore between boiling a carrot and boiling a lobster.
Just my 2 cents worth :)