Oh how crazy the world is; or the Swiss may soon be questioning if their cheese has feelings

The world just got a little crazier. For years now the regulations animal research has slowly been tightening. Slowly but surely the ability for a researcher to conduct experimentation living models has been becoming more difficult; more paperwork, more bureaucracy, more hassle. Ethics boards have very strict and explicit documentation about what types of studies you can perform and on what animals. Things like dignity or rights of the animal have to be taken into account first. Not without good reason either. Sometime it is taken overboard, but for the most part making sure that complex experimental animals are treated in a dignified manner is a very important aspect of animal research. I say "complex" experimental animals but what I mean are ones with complex-enough nervous systems to experience emotions and pain. This is determined on a case-by-case basis. For example, we don't purposefully insert a potentially deleterious gene into a chimpanzee embryo to see if we can get it to grow 2 extra limbs. We believe (correctly) that an organism with such highly evolved processing capability is able to feel many of the same emotions that we feel and therefore is more stringently protected. Fruit flies, on the other hand, are very common laboratory organisms. Researchers have genetically modified them in thousands of different ways. They can get them to grow different wing types, different numbers of wings, extra body segments, etc. etc. Does nobody want to protect fruit flies? The Swiss do. And they aren't stopping there. There is an article in today's Wall Street Journal describing an amendment to the Swiss constitution that has Swiss ethicists pondering what sort of rights plants have. The conclusion they come to can only be described as "bang head on desk" stupid.

For years, Swiss scientists have blithely created genetically modified rice, corn and apples. But did they ever stop to consider just how humiliating such experiments may be to plants?

That's a question they must now ask. Last spring, this small Alpine nation began mandating that geneticists conduct their research without trampling on a plant's dignity.

Dignity and pride are inventions of the human mind and most other organisms have no such theoretical constructs. In order to feel humiliated an organism must first possess the proper anatomy--aka, a brain.

Emotions orginate from the brain, not the "heart". It is this fallacy which allows people to believe in trees having feelings, or that it is

It's wrong to genetically alter a plant and render it sterile

Yeah, I bet my seedless watermelon is screaming about the injustice of the world...just on the inside right?

Even worse, some nutjobs who don't understand the first thing about GMO's, try and take things into their own hands. Sometimes dangerous, most times nutty, these people insist that GMO's are dangerous to our health and the environment. It is bogus. GMO's pose no health risk to us. We can "absorb" GMO DNA from ingestion just as readily as we can "regular" plant DNA through ingestion...WE CAN'T. The purported risk to the environment is only to the extent that these "super crops" could be so dominant that they stifle all competition. This is blown way out of proportion and even if it did happen it wouldn't last very long as evolution has a way of keeping these things in check. In other words, please keep your tinfoil hats on but allow us to improve food growth efficiency.

At the end of the linked WSJ article it describes this very situation.

When applying for a larger field trial, he ran into the thorny question of plant dignity. Plants don't have a nervous system and probably can't feel pain, but no one knows for sure. So Dr. Keller argued that by protecting wheat from fungus he was actually helping the plant, not violating its dignity -- and helping society in the process.

One morning recently, he stood by a field near Zurich where the three-year trial with transgenic wheat is under way. His observations suggest that the transgenic wheat does well in the wild. Yet Dr. Keller's troubles aren't over.

In June, about 35 members of a group opposed to the genetic modification of crops, invaded the test field. Clad in white overalls and masks, they scythed and trampled the plants, causing plenty of damage.

"They just cut them," says Dr. Keller, gesturing to wheat stumps left in the field. "Where's the dignity in that?"

The wheat was actually thriving. Meaning Dr. Keller improved the "quality of life" (whatever that means in reference to a plant) of this wheat and yet these crazies came and cut it down.

Before long, if the Swiss keep this up, they will be wondering how all those Streptococcus, Lactobacillus, and Propionibacter feel about doing nothing but pumping out swiss cheese all day. Show some bacterial respect! Allow them to choose what they do with their lives!

Consciousness is nothing more or less than a non-specific survival response.