The method of in vitro cultures is a specific technique of cultivation and study of plant material under sterile conditions. Plant tissue culture uses the plant’s ability of regeneration of the whole plant from its parts, even from a single cell. The culture is maintained in proper conditions of light and temperature that are different for plant species. Properties of the plant material and composition of physical properties of the medium have a profound impact of the quality of culture. In vitro plant cultures are widely used in plant science and find its application in practice in micropropagation, protection of biological diversity by creating banks of seeds, biotransformation, plant natural products or by creating transgenic organisms.
The present paper consists of two parts. In the first, some issues related to the character of biological experiments conducted under in vitro cultures are portrayed. The relevant aspects of these procedures are explicated from the viewpoint of the experimental botanist. It is a case study for the considerations in the second part, which presents selected philosophical and legal issues involved in biological experiments from the general perspective of philosophical investigations concerning the problem of plants’ axiology. Obviously, the nature of the considerations is limited; not all important questions from the perspective of biology and philosophy have been raised. Nevertheless, the authors hope that the analyzed issues may be interesting for both biologists and philosophers.
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