Nor to business a drudge, nor to faction a slave,
He strove to make int'rest and freedom agree
Tonight we heard from Ananda Chakrabarty about the issues of patenting living organisms and his latest research trying to make new drugs based on the effect of bacteria slowing down or reversing cancer and AIDS. Bioengineering is of particular interest to InCrops, who both sponsored the session and introduced Ananda.
Diamond vs Chakrabarty in 1980 established that an oil-digesting bacterium for use in cleaning up oil spills could be patented, in 5 to 4 majority decision of the US Supreme Court. The voting was similarly close in the audience, considering the potential of such innovations to bring wealth and advance to society and the danger of later innovations involving enslavement of human life. According to Ananda, a similar vote in a talk he gave at the European Patent Office in Munich was two thirds against patenting living organisms.
The controversy continued afterwards in networking with Life Science University researchers, local lawyers and medical research charities. People questioned the science of the current research and the logic of the legal judgement. But they agreed we were lucky to get a chance to hear Ananda's experience first hand and debate the issues.
it's not valid anymore, information contained in this article...
Posted by: demonoid | July 25, 2011 at 12:42 PM