the whole sell-off today has more to do with market psychology than actual substance in the Clinton speech.
however,,,i think there are two sides to this issue that are rather complicated...
from a profit and capitalistic perspective----companies spending money to identify genes want to be able to lock into that potential profit by patenting genes. the race and success in identify the genes have been increased exponentially by the private sector's involvement. progress has been made because of potential massive profits. being able to identify genes allow one to find ways to fix it in diseased states. so finding the genes is a very significant part of finding the cure. heck,,what's there to cure if we don't know what's broken?
now,,,the government and humanity as a whole jump up and say,,,wait a minute,,you can't patent genes..and i don't know what the answer to that is. my own thought is that one should not be able to patent genes...i mean,,,why should HGSI, CRA, or whoever have the rights to my genes,,,which are very similar to yours...it's like trying to patent oxygen...
having said that,,,the government can't tell these companies that have been working and spending money out the wazoo trying to find genes that they no longer can profit from this....so it's going to be a slippery place where ethicists and scientists,,,and capitalists need to sit down and work out the best way to allow capitalism to continue to drive the engine,,,but yet,,,not lock the data in a vault and only available to the highest bidder...
wow,,,what a tangled web..
mike |
