Controversy with the plants’ right
By: Minha, Year 10
More than 80% of the biomass existing on Earth are plants. Such plants have raised an important question for us: do plants have rights? Currently, human rights seem to have reached an era where it is considered one of the most crucial factors composing human life. Not only that, but the boundaries of the rights have expanded to animals and there are actions intended to provide higher quality of life and freedom. Plants, dominating the Earth with their unique scent and beautiful color, provide living organisms-including humans-the main source of life. It holds tremendous amount of power and in some aspects, may be considered to have a bigger influence than any other organisms. However, currently, this plant, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), around 40% of the world’s plant species are threatened with extinction. This can relate to the idea of whether ‘rights’ should or should not be given to plants.
Before we go any deeper into this topic, what exactly is meant by ‘rights’? Rights can be classified into sections of human rights, animal rights, and plant rights. The dictionary definition of these rights are all slightly different. Human rights are called the fundamental right inherent to all human beings regardless of their nationality, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or any other status. Human rights are typically protected by law. However, animal rights show moral statements advocating for animals’ humane treatment and protection. However, while human rights are regarded in the same way in most parts of the world, animals’ rights differ in range of until what limit will be giving rights to animals. Plant rights, which are more recent and evolving by the ethical issues, do not have a specific definition since it is not considered as commonly as human or animal rights. When we refer to it however, it usually says ethical and philosophical ideas of plants and how we can consider the well-being and the moral status of plants.
Just like how the definition and the boundaries of plant rights is vague, opinions on how it should be applied to plants vary. The concept of plant rights can be traced back to 1828, where Gustav Theodor Fechner, a German physicist, philosopher, and experimental psychologist, suggested the idea of plants having emotions, which can lead to the idea of plants given rights for one reason that emotion is an extensive part of categories of to who rights should be given to. There was an experiment in 1968 by a scientist named Dorothy Retallack where he turned on a different genre of music and observed the reaction from a pumpkin vine. The result was, when he turned on classical music, the plant tended to grow, wrapping itself around the speaker, but when rock music was on, it grew, avoiding the speaker. This intrigued curiosity from a multitude of people but was not accepted in the scientific community for it was soon classified as, the plants could react to the external stimuli and damage but could not go further the level of emotions that humans and animals feel. Another viewpoint is that plants’ idea of ‘reaction’ should not be considered like the one of a human. Since our biological body structure and plants’ is different, the idea of right also may be different.
We can also look at this matter not only in the eyes of scientists, but as philosophers. According to Tom Raigon, an animal rights philosopher, he says that the reason animal is considered to have rights, is because animals have a certain level of understanding of who they are. However, he says that plants do not have this ability. Others also say that even though they respect the existence of plants, they do not agree with the idea of giving rights to them for similar reasons. However, nowadays, ethical and the matter of who they are is being reconsidered causing this notion to shift.
Overall, even though the idea of human and animal rights are clear and is underpinned with straight forward evidence, plant rights have little support and is not considered with a serious manner. Society today, both scientifically and philosophically, does not agree with plant rights widely for reasons of the difference in biological bodies, the level of emotions that they can feel, etc. However, if the concept that is used to support the idea of animal and human rights is proved wrong such as the one where animals are known to recognize themselves, the idea of plants right will experience a big shift. We might as well be looking forward to the future where we might be restricted to having flowers in our vase!
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