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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Re: Can plants feel pain?
« on: 13/02/2012 20:21:52 »
Much of this revolves around how one would define pain, which even amongst humans is a highly subjective phenomenon. Extrapolating pain responses even onto other animals can be problematic, there are varying degrees of similarity in the nervous systems of different taxa of animals and it can be hard to judge how these differences translate into the feeling and processing of pain as it would in a human. In some ways there is an important psychological element to pain and its overall ability to indicate ‘suffering’ in either human, other animals or indeed plants, etc. Some organisms can be considered to be able to anticipate/fear instances of pain and respond accordingly, much as humans do, whereas other organisms are simply able to produce a response to physical intervantion/damage, yet still others are not capable of making any detectable pain response (although there may be observable physiological/endocrine responses which could be monitored, such as in the case of bivalves and similar animals).
In summary, I think I am inclined to say that plants are not capable of feeling pain in a manner that we as animals (particulary as hominids, and likewise other primates) would understand it. But there is always room in science for the revision of our accepted wisdom, were the evidence to come to light.
In summary, I think I am inclined to say that plants are not capable of feeling pain in a manner that we as animals (particulary as hominids, and likewise other primates) would understand it. But there is always room in science for the revision of our accepted wisdom, were the evidence to come to light.