>> I am so sick of hearing a non-vegetarian say "What about the plants
>> don't they have any feeling?" Excuse me, I hardly see the comparison> Plants such as carnivorous plants (-venus fly trap), do have
> feelings. They have some sort of scent in the inner "flower" (jaw
> really!) and flies are attracted to this scent. When the plant feels
> or senses this fly, it clamps down on th fly and digests it.
Robots use sensors of varous descriptions to receive import from the
environment around them. This does not mean that todays robots have
'feelings' anymore than the venus fly-trap plant has feelings because it can sense a fly on its leaves. Feelings, in the contexts of animals and their capacity to suffer, can not simply be compared to the ability to sense. The question is not - can they sense - but can they suffer.
You would have great difficulty demonstrating a plants ability to suffer in anyway we could understand - but demonstrating the suffering of non-human animals is easy.
