Who Owns Your DNA?
Posted by notjoelschneier on Wednesday, Mar 31, 2010
An article from today’s New York Times wrote that a US District Court Judge shot down a number of attempted patents related to two specific genes thought to control cancer. The article goes on to explain that “The decision, if upheld, could throw into doubt the patents covering thousands of human genes and reshape the law of intellectual property.”
Excuse me but, WHAAAAAATTTT? People have been patenting human genes?
Yes. Researchers and scientists and sciency-corporations have been patenting the genes of living beings since the 1980s. In fact, there was a Supreme Court case, Diamond v. Chakrabarty, that supported this practice (though that case had to do with a bacteria that Chakrabarty engineered himself). Hell, the article even says that about 20% OF HUMAN GENES HAVE BEEN PATENTED AND CLAIMED AS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY.
The Judge, and those who support his ruling, argue that beings that were created by the laws of nature cannot be patented. Finding the secrets to the genes and DNA that hold those living beings together, then, are discoveries, not inventions, and therefore not patentable.
Those who oppose the Judge’s ruling, backed by multi-bazillion dollar medical and pharmacological companies, argue that the extent of research and effort spent to isolate specific types of DNA from the human body makes it patentable.
I barely understand what’s going on here. But what I clearly understand is that I’ve been missing out. All these years I’ve been trying to think of a way to enslave humanity for my own personal bidding, and now I find out I could’ve been patenting our genetic code for malevolent deeds the entire fuggin’ time. And now it’s too late.
Damnit.
Original NY Times article here.
Who Owns the Human Genetic Code essay here.
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notjoelschneier
find me at World's End
Portland, United States
Member since 2010
Writer, photographer, cartoonist. Obsessed with story-telling, silly ironies, new media, and pants. Creator of "NinjaPancakes.com":http://www.ninjapancakes.com.
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randlemaniac 5 months ago
This is not only legal, but it has been standard practice for years. In 1980, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Warren Burger ruled in Diamond v. Chakrabarty (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=447&invol=303 the case) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_v._Chakrabarty the wiki) that in cases where previously nonexistent forms of life are created by human beings was patentable. The scope of this ruling has since expanded to an extent that any living organism, in part or whole, with the exception of a full birth human being is patentable under law. The genetic sequences for major diseases, human proteins, wild species of animals like orangutans, and biologically engineered microbes and plants are being patented as fast as possible. There are major implications, and as bio-technological capabilities have improved, things like "suicide genes", which are engineered sections of DNA that cause organisms or seeds to self destruct after a certain period of time, are being incorporated into business strategies. The advantage of the suicide gene is its near perfect accomplishment of the 'planned obsolescence' idea, the creation of a perpetual market. There is of course all kinds of room for debate here, and I'm not implying some kind of impending dystopia of corporate control, but its some pretty wild stuff with major implications.
gabrielsyme 5 months ago
I mean if they want my cancer genes they can have them.
notjoelschneier 5 months ago
true, there does need to be some sort of protection/reward for such intense research. but claiming genes or dna as intellectual property is absurd. after all, coca-cola owns the rights to its recipe, but they cannot own the rights to the natural ingredients of that recipe. I don't know much about genetics, but maybe just the process to isolate specific genes or the locations of specific genes can be intellectual property. but not the genes themselves. those are mine.
gabrielsyme 5 months ago
The amount of work and that goes into isolating and characterizing a gene or genetic system necessitates the protection of profits that result from that research. Patenting discrete genes is a trash way to go about it, but there needs to be a system to compensate people who make the discoveries that allow your research to go forward.
Kushington 5 months ago
Aint nobody owning my DNA!
NightTerror 5 months ago
I guess you can slap a patent on anything now
The_Good_Doc 5 months ago
How is this even close to being legal?
sleepIN 5 months ago
that is the real question.
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