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Re: FW: Bizzare new world, eh?
JOHN LANGDON (LANGDON@GANDLF.UINDY.EDU)
Mon, 9 Oct 1995 14:05:42 -0400
Normally I would read and delete a message such as this, but I shared it with my
department as potential grist for classroom discussion. I mean, just reading it
shows how tacky biotechnology can be, in which the ends -- presumably medical
applications, scientific advancement, and perhaps a better understanding of
human diversity (driven by the incentive of academic status and corporate
profit, of course) -- justify the means of stepping on human dignity to
reduce a unique individual to a patentable chemical.
On the other hand, I wondered just how one would present this to the class. What
exactly was patented? Certainly no citizen of New Guinea was boxed and mailed
express to the patent office. I am under the (possibly mistaken) impression that
genetic material cannot be pantented until it has been sequenced. Certainly the
entire individual has not been sequenced, and probably little more is known than
a few key genetic markers at this point. I infer therefore that only those
markers -- tools for reading on set of genomes has been patented.
The truth is, I don't know. The press release did not include any such
information that might be useful in understanding the situation. We don't know
what was patented, or by whom, or why, or for what purpose. I get a strong sense
that the author did not care -- or did not care to let us know. The release
reads as a knee-jerk anti-science anti-establishment distribe that is not only
uninterested in educating people of the issues, but would prefer that we remain
in ignorance, inflenced only by their emotional outpouring. Is this what pomo
has led to -- such a suspicion and rejection of knowledge that one person's
outrage at what insult might in the future be delivered upon a third party
should take precedence over even listening to another's perspective? I mean,
just reading it shows how tacky activism can be, in which the ends -- presumably
human dignity and equality (driven by the incentive of academic status and
national profit, of course) -- justify the means of stepping on human dignity to
treat us as irrational political fodder.
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