The locked code

doi:10.1136/bmj.39190.654132.94

BMJ 2007;334:1032-1033 (19 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39190.654132.94

Feature

Gene patents

The locked code

Geoff Watts, freelance journalist

London

geoff@scileg.freeserve.co.uk

Despite numerous attempts to prevent it, patenting of genesis still legal. Geoff Watts explains the problems

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A bill introduced earlier this year in the US House of Representativeshad one indisputable virtue: brevity. Congressmen Xavier Becerraand Dave Weldon's proposed Genomic Research and Diagnostic AccessibilityAct would have added a new section to the US legal code. Thebill ran thus: "Notwithstanding any other provision of law,no patent may be obtained for a nucleotide sequence, or itsfunctions or correlations, or the naturally occurring productsit specifies."¹ That was it.

Had the bill been passed it would have resolved a long runningdispute over the legitimacy of patenting genes. But it was notto be. The bill ran out of time, gene patenting remains legal,and the argument goes on. Given that the patent system is longestablished and generally agreed to be socially desirable, whyshould its application to genes have proved so contentious?

For many reasons—not the least of which is a widespread. . . [Full text of this article]