Scientific institutions and individuals have been patenting the genes in our bodies and now own them as their personal property. More than 20 percent of human genes have already been patented, and most of those patents are owned by corporations and its aim is to make money.
Here is a potent example:
"Professor Hilgartner noted how this kind of control can play out in the real world. In the case of the Canavan disease patent, for example, a family afflicted by this rare genetic disorder initiated an effort to find the gene mutation responsible for the disease. They raised money, collected DNA samples and attracted researchers to the cause."
"After a researcher found the gene in the late 1990s, he and his employer, Miami Children’s Hospital, patented it and began charging royalties on a genetic test to screen for the disease — despite the fact that they would never have found the gene without the efforts and the DNA samples of the afflicted."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/business/yourmoney/28reframe.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
2007-01-28
00:17:59
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Law & Ethics