In the April 24, 2008 edition of Nature [1](available online only with a subscription), it is reported that the Swiss Federal Government has issued guidelines to help granting agencies “decide which research applications deeply offend the dignity of plants.” Those studies that fail to treat plants with “dignity” won’t be funded.
This is not a spoof report. It is real, and this new requirement has many scientists wondering what it could possibly mean to consider the “dignity of plants.”
The Swiss Ethics Committee has offered little guidance to this point, but suggests that genetic modifications causing plans to “lose their independence” by “interfering with their capacity to reproduce” could be suspect. This leaves many plant geneticists wondering whether there is now a problem with traditional plant hybridization. For instance, roses require male sterility. The article raises the question of whether the development of seedless fruits is now unethical in Switzerland.
This article leaves me wondering what new ethics guidelines we’ll see next. Perhaps there will be a new law requiring the ethical treatment of non-living things, such as rocks, clouds or spoons. Perhaps there will be new labor restrictions imposed to keep us from abusing our computers by constantly giving them keyboard commands or by making them work more than forty hours per week.
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