Forget the babies...what about the plants?!

As someone with a degree in horticulture, I just can't believe we're having this discussion while its questionable whether a baby in the womb has rights.

From the Weekly Standard (H/T Blackadder)

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.

A "clear majority" of the panel adopted what it called a "biocentric" moral
view, meaning that "living organisms should be considered morally for their own
sake because they are alive." Thus, the panel determined that we cannot claim
"absolute ownership" over plants and, moreover, that "individual plants have an
inherent worth." This means that "we may not use them just as we please, even if
the plant community is not in danger, or if our actions do not endanger the
species, or if we are not acting arbitrarily.

"The committee offered this illustration: A farmer mows his field
(apparently an acceptable action, perhaps because the hay is intended to feed
the farmer's herd--the report doesn't say). But then, while walking home, he
casually "decapitates" some wildflowers with his scythe. The panel decries this
act as immoral, though its members can't agree why. The report states, opaquely:
At this point it remains unclear whether this action is condemned because it
expresses a particular moral stance of the farmer toward other organisms or
because something bad is being done to the flowers themselves.

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.