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[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

Maybe someone with a closer understanding of plants, like Sage or someone 
else, can tell me if this article makes these ethics professors sound nutty, 
or if I'm just not as educated on the new ethos as should be desired 
....bobford
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OCTOBER 10, 2008 

Switzerland's Green Power Revolution: Ethicists Ponder Plants' Rights 

Who Is to Say Flora Don't Have Feelings? Figuring Out What Wheat Would Want

By GAUTAM NAIKArticle
 
 »ZURICH -- 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.

 Beat Keller
"Unfortunately, we have to take it seriously," Beat Keller, a molecular 
biologist at the University of Zurich. "It's one more constraint on doing 
genetic research."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122359549477921201.html