Should patents on genes be banned?
By Yahoo User • Category: Do I Need It To Patent?In 1990, the HGP Human Genome Project was formally started. By the yar 2003, a complete copy of the human genome was released to the public. During the late 1980’s, GE General Electric applied for patents for a strain of bacteria. The patent office turned it down, citing that you can’t patent something living. Unfortunately, GE went to the supreme court, which overruled the decision. The idiots who voted yes in the supreme court claimed that they did not believe that this would have any major implications. Apart from showing the lack of basic knowledge in biology displayed by the judges, it opened up the door to a whole new set of patents. By the year 2005, 20% of ALL of the human genome had been patented. Should this be allowed to continue? The end result is predictable: corporate explotiation for the next 20 years the patent lasts. Do people really think that patents of genes are in their best interests? And what does this mean for bacteriophages and viruses?
I don’t think we have the right to patent any part of a living thing for owr own. It’s silly to claim ownership for personal gain. We should be concerned with the promotion of the whole human race, not some selfish, greedy individual or group. Humans scare me. Perhaps we contain the seeds of our own destruction.
I think that this is a gross miscarriage of Justice! No one has a right to patient anyone Else’s genes! It should be reversed as soon as yesterday! Before you know it, they will be able to produce mindless workers that they don’t have to pay & can discard as soon as they become useless!You can bet that who ever owns those genes does not have our best interest in mind, only their own profit margin & control of the rest of the population.
So, if GE owns, for example, a patent on the genes for blue eyes, then their patent rights are violated when two blue-eyed parents produce a blue-eyed child. Hm. So, if GE so chooses, it can demand either compensation from the transgressing family or the death of the transgressing child. Yep, it sure sounds like the Supreme Court had a major case of the stupids when it ruled that living thing could be patented. Either that, or they’ve become very, very evil people.