ABSTRACT
The fundamental problem is the way one view and value life, nature as a whole, living organisms, plants and animals and their unique capacity to reproduce. Nature as whole and living beings is increasingly given their own rights and dignity, even by the public and by some policy makers; organisations like Greenpeace have fought for this. The Swiss Constitution, for instance, states that the dignity of creatures needs to be protected. On Art. 53 the article about the exclusion of varieties and essentially biological processes, one experience was that, by claiming plants to be the product of a microbiological process, plants became patentable. On Art. 53 were much more successful. The limits were defined, viz. that the product of genetic engineering goes to the plant cells but not to the whole plant.
