The Gene Patenting Debate Rages On

Shervin Riahi writes, "There's an article in Salon on gene patenting that my genetics lab professor, Judith Tsipis (member of Brandeis University faculty), informed her class of. This is a topic I feel not many people know/care enough about; defend your rights! "

Comments

*A PROPOSAL*

[ATKeiper]

This discussion is quite similar to another thread posted today about the Human Genome Project. In my post on that other thread (click here) I propose that a new category of patent be created, so researchers can have control over (and profit from) their data but only for a very limited time. That way, they can deservedly benefit financially from their investment of time and money (an incredible contribution to genomic research) while researchers' desire to have all genomic research freely available will only be put off briefly.

Incidentally, if you are interested in reading other articles about the genome patent controversy, we have a collection on our Biotechnology page.

A. Keiper
The Center for the Study of Technology and Society