Plants deserve respect, a group of Swiss experts said Monday, arguing that killing¹ them arbitrarily was morally wrong -- except when it comes to saving humans or maybe picking the petals² off a daisy.

In a report on "the dignity of the creature in the plant world," the federal Ethics³ Committee on non-human Gene⁴ Technology condemned⁵ the decapitation of flowers without reason, among other sins.

Still, commission member Bernard Baertsche suggested at a press conference the body weighed such cruel acts on a case-by-case basis, noting "the simple pleasure of picking the petals off a daisy might suffice as a reason."

Similarly "all action that involves plants in the aim to conserve⁶ the human species is morally justified," the commission, tasked to offer an ethical⁷ take on all areas of biotechnology and genetic⁸ engineering, said in its report.

Nor did the commission object to genetic engineering, since this did not threaten plants' "autonomy -- that is their capacity to reproduce or their capacity of adaptation."

And only a minority of the group's members objected to patenting plants, with the majority ruling the action did not infringe⁹ on "their moral value."