Gene Patents

[talon]

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62S5FJ20100330

Yay!!!

I wish judges would do that with plants as well as human genes. I don't think anyone has any right to "own" the genes of plants, particularly of crop plants such as cotton, corn, soy, or wheat.

Yes, humans can manipulate these genes, but they can't create an entirely new species of plant, just variations on a theme - and that theme was created by nature and should therefore be unpatentable.

Now, if perchance, some company like Monsanto actually creates an entire new species of plant, I may reconsider my stance on patenting living genes. But I don't really think I will. What lives, whether hatched from an egg, born alive, or grown from a seed or spore, should be considered unpatentable.

It used to be. Then Monsanto apparently put pressure on politicians and got that changes.

I hope the tide is turning and judges and such will realize just how wrong it is to patent living matter.

No one should own another living being.

I don't "own" the dogs, cats, and other critters living with me. I am their custodian, their steward, their handler, their caretaker, but not their owner.

That's the way it should be.

I might perhaps agree to a compromise whereby companies such as Monsanto are considered the custodian of a certain set of genes they create - not patented - so their research and profit are protected for set amount of time so no one else will re-create the genes in a lab setting, but Monsanto et al would be unable to sue farmers whose crops are pollinated or contaminated by the plants that were genetically altered in the labs, as at least Monsanto does now. That's the reason I am boycotting all things I know come from Monsanto - from bedsheets to corn. If I can trace it to Monsanto, I will not buy it. If I accidentally buy it, I will ship it to Monsanto and tell them I refuse to own it until they stop being so unreasonable about accidents of nature.

If Monsanto couldn't "own" the genes, especially once planted out in the open where winds would naturally cross-pollinate, they would still have control of the seeds but not the grown plants and they couldn't sue farmers out of business over natural cross-pollination.

Then, I'd stop boycotting Monsanto for that.

Now, whether there are other things to boycott Monsanto over is a different story. For now, the gene patenting is sufficient reason for a boycott.