What do you think about corporations patenting genes? How can you discover something nature made and claim it?

Answer 1

Is it any different from a drug company developing a drug that combats cancer or AIDS and then making it so expensive that the people who need it can't afford it? It's all about the cash. It's gross.

Answer 2

I don't like it. Hold on tight to your DNA. You may want to patent it before any of these corporations do... India is going about registering all of their native medicinal herbs as national treasure, because someone in the US patented the widely used herb Neem...as if. What about patenting Yoga? Some people try to do this, even though it has been in the public domain for over 7000 years. You can't take a human gene, alter it, and then claim that you "discovered" something new about and make a claim on someone else's gene...Corporate and "scientific" hubris. They have no idea what monsters they will create (like nano technology. It's dangerous, and people are so stupid to think that we are so brilliant with our "forward" technology.)

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geuszsWg1FgEMBkzdXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB2b2gzdDdtBGNvbG8DZQRsA1dTMQRwb3MDMQRzZWMDc3IEdnRpZAM-/SIG=11pf03ifk/EXP=1158589548/**http%3a//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics

Answer 3

What they are patenting are genes that they have modified through manipulation of the DNA in the gene. Although nature made the original gene, the corporations modified the gene in a way that nature wouldn't, ergo: it is theirs to patent.

p.s. I don't like it any more than you. I fear that something like this could be a "Pandora's Box".

Answer 4

I'm not sure this is the case. I think they only patent new novel genes, produced by site-directed mutagenesis on a natural gene.

These new genes would be based on the natural gene, but altered in a small way that alters its activity in a benificial way to us humans.

Answer 5

this is their first step to legal ownership of human beings. what you are seeing is the eugenics movement.