[Mrs. Don-o]

Under Diamond vs Chakrabarty (Diamond, Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks v. Chakrabarty. United States Supreme Court. June 16, 1980) you can patent genes and genetically modified organisms. Roe vs Wade, of course, made it legally impossible to distinguish between non-human (bacteria, plant, animal) and human genes, since the Court professed invincible ignorance concerning the question of "what is human"?

These two USSC cases, plus some subsequent rulings, make it possible for a researcher to "discover" a gene, meaning do original research on how it functions, and use this as a basis for patenting it. This is all recent caselaw, still developing. For a good overview. see The Impact of Human Gene Patents on Innovation and Access: A Survey of Human Gene Patent Litigation.

Biggest issue of the 21st century, and none of the candidates --- Clinton Obama, or McCain ---have spoken about it or given the least indication that they know one damn thing about it. Except we can probably assume they're all for it, since they're all in favor of ESSR.

[Tired of Taxes]

Thanks for the information. Brave New World, here we are.