Patenting Human Genes: the Advent of Ethics in the Political Economy of Patent Law

Abstract

Just as the development of technology is a branch of the history of political and economy, so is the evolution of patent law. The claim is well illustrated by the attempts mounted in recent years in the United States and Europe to patent DNA sequences that comprise fragments of human genes. Examination of these efforts reveals a story that is partly familiar: Individuals, companies, and governments have been fighting over the rights to develop potentially lucrative products based on human genes. The battle has turned in large part on whether the grant of such rights would serve a public economic and biotechnological interest. Yet the contest has raised issues that have been, for the most part, historically unfamiliar in patent policy -- whether intellectual property rights should be granted in substances that comprise the fundamental code of human life. The elevation of human DNA to nearly sacred status has fostered the view among many groups that private ownership and exploitation of human DNA sequences is somehow both wrong and threatening, an unwarranted and dangerous violation of a moral code.

Files

Additional details