SPT v6n3 - Patenting and Transgenic Organisms: A Philosophical Exploration
Spring 2003 Volume 6
Number 3
Patenting and Transgenic Organisms: A Philosophical Exploration
Keekok Lee
Institute for Environment, Philosophy & Policy University of Lancaster
Transgenic organisms: how they differ from Mendelian hybrids 1
In the first half of the twentieth century, the technology of hybridization generated by the theoretical discoveries of Mendelian genetics produced with a greater degree of precision plants and animals possessing characteristics deemed to be desirable than the traditional methods of breeding. However, such Mendelian products, nevertheless, may be said, in comparison, to embody a lower level of artefacticity than those produced by rDNA technology induced by the fundamental discoveries of molecular genetics in the second half of the last century. In the case of the latter, their greater degree of artefacticity is due to the fact that their mode of production involves the manipulation of, and indeed, the exchange of genetic material at the molecular level across species, and even, kingdoms. This then locates them at the pole, which is directly opposite to that occupied by organisms regarded as naturally-occurring. In this respect, they are distinctly human artefacts in the same way as houses or paintings are paradigmatically human artefacts, which ex hypothesi could not be naturally-occurring entities. Transgenic organisms are biotic while houses and paintings are abiotic artefacts. However, unlike houses and paintings, many transgenic organisms are capable of biological reproduction or replication and could, under certain conditions, eventually escape from the human-controlled environment to lead an independent existence outside it. It is precisely because of this possibility, that so much angst and discussion have been generated about the environmental risks which could be involved in rDNA technology. 4
Two assumptions stood behind such recognition of patentability: that artefacts can be biotic or abiotic, and that the products of biogenetic technology qualify as biotic artefacts. Given these assumptions, it was expected that a favourable decision in the Chakarbarty case would clear the way for the numerous products of the biotechnology revolution which were rapidly coming on stream but which were held up until the Supreme Court had pronounced on the Chakrabarty case. After all, the rDNA organisms-be they animals, plants or microbes-compared with those produced by other forms of biogenetic technology, embody even a greater degree of artefacticity. It stood to reason then that rDNA organisms, their products and procedures are all patentable as they are paradigmatically human-designed, human-made, and are not the products of nature.
Some excerpts from:
SPT v6n3 - Patenting and Transgenic Organisms: A Philosophical Exploration
Spring 2003 Volume 6 Number 3 Patenting and Transgenic Organisms: A Philosophical Exploration
Keekok Lee
Institute for Environment, Philosophy & Policy University of Lancaster
Transgenic organisms: how they differ from Mendelian hybrids 1
In the first half of the twentieth century, the technology of hybridization generated by the theoretical discoveries of Mendelian genetics produced with a greater degree of precision plants and animals possessing characteristics deemed to be desirable than the traditional methods of breeding. However, such Mendelian products, nevertheless, may be said, in comparison, to embody a lower level of artefacticity than those produced by rDNA technology induced by the fundamental discoveries of molecular genetics in the second half of the last century. In the case of the latter, their greater degree of artefacticity is due to the fact that their mode of production involves the manipulation of, and indeed, the exchange of genetic material at the molecular level across species, and even, kingdoms. This then locates them at the pole, which is directly opposite to that occupied by organisms regarded as naturally-occurring. In this respect, they are distinctly human artefacts in the same way as houses or paintings are paradigmatically human artefacts, which ex hypothesi could not be naturally-occurring entities. Transgenic organisms are biotic while houses and paintings are abiotic artefacts. However, unlike houses and paintings, many transgenic organisms are capable of biological reproduction or replication and could, under certain conditions, eventually escape from the human-controlled environment to lead an independent existence outside it. It is precisely because of this possibility, that so much angst and discussion have been generated about the environmental risks which could be involved in rDNA technology. 4
Two assumptions stood behind such recognition of patentability: that artefacts can be biotic or abiotic, and that the products of biogenetic technology qualify as biotic artefacts. Given these assumptions, it was expected that a favourable decision in the Chakarbarty case would clear the way for the numerous products of the biotechnology revolution which were rapidly coming on stream but which were held up until the Supreme Court had pronounced on the Chakrabarty case. After all, the rDNA organisms-be they animals, plants or microbes-compared with those produced by other forms of biogenetic technology, embody even a greater degree of artefacticity. It stood to reason then that rDNA organisms, their products and procedures are all patentable as they are paradigmatically human-designed, human-made, and are not the products of nature.
https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/SPT/v6n3/lee.html