In Defense of Patenting You and Your Family :: essays research papers fc

In Defense of Patenting You and Your Family How would you feel if I told you that I am the new proud owner of you and your family? That is, that I have been granted a United States patent on the DNA sequence particular to your line of descent because I have identified a unique property of your genetic material. A few cultured cells with your genetic makeup, added to lotion and rubbed on the skin, allow one to look younger, wrinkle-free, and be less susceptible to skin cancer. Of course this does not mean that I have control over yours and your family’s actions – only over the application of your DNA to skin care. If you feel like you may have hit the jackpot, then prepare for another disappointment – you are not entitled to any portion of my profits, nor are you rewarded for having such supple genes. Under current patent law, living entities are not patentable in their natural state, which means that you cannot patent your own body1. Other requirements for a patent is that the invention or design is novel – no one else made it public; innovative – it can’t be a development which is obvious; and useful – it has to aid a practical human activity. British woman, Donna MacLean found out that she can’t patent her own body when she became the first person to try to patent herself in early 2000. Her patent application was titled â€Å"Myself† and her reason for trying to do it was as good as any. â€Å"It has taken 30 years of hard labour for me to discover and invent myself, and now I wish to protect my invention from unauthorized exploitation, genetic or otherwise,† MacLean told the British newspaper â€Å"The Guardian.† So Donna and your family will not become wealthy from your respectable DNA, but let’s not discredit our legal system yet. Perhaps the system is accurate after all, and the issues are more complex than they appear at first glance.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  No matter where your family is from, the US, Britain, or Kenya, the controversial race of biotech companies to own human DNA is having its affect. For example, imagine another family from a third-world country, let’s say somewhere in Africa, and that bioprospectors from the US have isolated an HIV immunity gene from the father’s saliva. The bioprospectors then develop a revolutionary treatment for AIDS, which costthem millions of dollars to research.