Plant Rights

As a reaction to an odd report produced for the Swiss government, see this diatribe from that pillar of sober rationality, The Weekly Standard:

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.

First off, as I mentioned, I think the report itself is strange, and probably a non-item in the realm of things we need to worry about. Not for the author, Wesley J. Smith (who, incidentally, is a fellow of the Discovery Institute, so you know the intellectual caliber of the argument). This comment from D at LG&M, I think, gives an idea of the way these arguments go:

That is, Swiss ethicists -- posing genuinely interesting questions about the relationship between human and non-human organisms -- are asked to explain why they aren't revealing their true agenda, which would include mandatory abortion, euthanasia, organ-harvesting, sterilization, and forced human extinction. Of course, when you proceed from the conviction that biological science jumped the shark during the mid-19th century, subtlety is probably too much to ask.

This sort of falls into line with Ben Stein's contention that Treblinka was Darwin's fault.

(Note: Believe it or not, I'm a devout person, and my religion holds that we share the universe with all living creatures. Wanton destruction is, indeed, an immoral act. The ethics of that position are more complex than Smith portrays -- or perhaps is capable of portraying -- but they do start from the position that the way you deal with the other creatures in your world is a moral issue. Just so you know.)