1/5 of your DNA is owned by US Based firms.

Your DNA is owned under patent by large firms.

Apologise if this has already been covered.

I recently read New Scientist and happened to come across an article about how our genes are actual being patented by large Pharmaceutical Firms. At first I thought it must have something to do with the scientific equipment used to identify certain genes, but on further reading I was astonished to find that US companies do indeed own the rights to your DNA.

I have discovered that this is a very controversial ruling in the world, and that many people have tried to challenge it. A lot share a view that I agree with which is if something is naturally produced in nature or the body, then it should not be “Owned” by anyone. Surely DNA , the very building blocks of life, can’t be owned by anyone but us....people.
According to some articles , US Patent law is actually blocking people from researching or studying certain genes, because they are owned by someone else. And, an interested party would have to pay vast sums of money to the owner of the patent before they can begin research on that gene.

Currently there are over 3 million genes awaiting patent approval in the US.

What this currently means is that the all powerful pharmaceutical companies are now blocking further research into genetic disorders around the world, because they own the rights to that gene. From what I can see Gene Patents have already affected our every day lives. Breast Cancer test have now risen from $1000USD to over $3000USD because someone owns the Gene to Breast Cancer. Myriad owns the patent on the BRCA 1 and 2 genes.

Many scientists around the world hesitated working on the SAR’s disease due to worries over patents.

The same name keeps popping up here as well. Myriad (Pharm firm) and Utah University.

I think this is a concern for us on a massive scale. My worries are:-

1) Blocking research on genetic disorders like Alzheimer’s, child disability.
2) Genetic Monopolies being formed. A few companies could own the entire Human DNA Sequence, how to extract it and how to cure diseases.
3) Gene Discrimination – AS in GATACA (Great film one of my top 50 of all time)
4) Companies profiteering even more than they are now on the very building blocks of our existence.
5) Again a lot of fingers are pointing at the USA for this. And I don’t trust the US government as far as I could kick em’. Sorry if that offends some of you yanks out there. Love the people, not sure about the government . So , if the USA who currently own 1/5 of your genes, end up owning them all. What will happen to us? Could that tech be used against us? Genetic Warfare?

To conclude, I’m shocked that common sense has not prevailed here. This is beyond ethical. This is an example of power , greed and corruption. I mean, who in there right mind would patent gene’s, the extraction of and the research of those genes? What person woke up one day and though “Hell, thats a great idea....lets screw humanity over some more”. Might have had something to do with Myriad buying that freedom. To me , this goes beyond common sense. Its like someone filing a patent on your eye ball, every time you use an eye ball you have to pay the US 1$.

Extreme example I hear you say. Well Adrenalin and Insulin, two natural hormones in the body, are already patented. Adrenalin from around the turn of the lastr century...over 100 years ago. .

Link to a good document. docs.google.com...01RbsczVoMJ:weblog.greenpeace.org/ge/archives/1Study_True_Costs_Gene_Patents.pdf+Ramifications+of+gene+pate nts&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgF5YpY6-1QzXD-zD-3MwF9p-zoxwc-VzjheEhwFTWFgqKG31h4SKh89b7-nZ0F21wAgiCw0G7vlZQoZfDgW27y94-hlEKxnB9j_uDgUbGXDf2JdNPt3 UH7eNB6f59D9EtIrs9R&sig=AHIEtbTdJGvsxHDIkJbE1X-u6rLQpKNolA


[edit on 16-2-2010 by Pax et Intellectus]

[edit on 16-2-2010 by Pax et Intellectus]

[edit on 16-2-2010 by Pax et Intellectus]

Good overview. S&F.

This situation is real - and possible because the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) redefined "information."

Now, under International Law, "information" is:

1. Anything that can be scanned, digitalized or computerized, including any individuals' DNA; and thereby (is)
2. A product, and a commodity.

Ownership of information product commodities also is specified under International Law:

Whomever scans, digitalizes or otherwise computerizes the data owns the product.

...and it does NOT matter how they might have come by their "samples." ...Trust me, you'll never know. ...Anything.

reply to post by soficrow


It looks like more and more people are coming together to combat this one anyway. In 2009 a few think tanks and groups , along with Green Peace are trying to get this raised in court. Lets home someone changes it.

So I wonder how long it will be before we need to pay a fee to have a baby.

Also not paying the fee would no doubt be termed as piracy as they are not getting paid for there intellectual rights.

I would see the point in them patenting treatments or drugs but how can they claim they have descovered a certian gene when it was there all along its not like they invented something that never exsisted.

Originally posted by jpmail
So I wonder how long it will be before we need to pay a fee to have a baby.

Also not paying the fee would no doubt be termed as piracy as they are not getting paid for there intellectual rights.

I would see the point in them patenting treatments or drugs but how can they claim they have descovered a certian gene when it was there all along its not like they invented something that never exsisted.

There are people out there willing to do that.

Like paying for a girl without breast cancer genes, by genetic screening(or put more bluntly, manipulation).

[edit on 16-2-2010 by jjjtir]

reply to post by jpmail


Well I think it looks like people are already profiteering from Gene patents. Im shocked at how many patents there are.

OMG !

There are to many naive and stupid people around !
How can this not have been noticed and put to an end, back then ?

Even with the res traction with war, crisis, poverty and not seeing to be a used enslaved community for profit. ( We are all slaves to society. Believe me it's a good thing. )Why is it, certain legislature or laws aren't changed in time. At most, receive a solution to satisfy ? ( which usually causes all kinds of new problems IMO. )

I can NOT believe every single man, women, doctor, professor, lawyer, judge, senator or even a president. Are guilty of this criminal act and deceit. There must be a reason for it to get as far for so long and people did not round up, joining forces ??? End this .

However it is part of the same problem with health care.
Your health or any other, should not be used for profit !!

Because money brings power and power corrupts ! Making more power for absolute power and absolute corruption ! Making you sick and only alive because they want you to get sicker or stay sick or and again and again be sick.
To make money !?

I'm sorry I over reacted a bit.
Your thread is why people are suspicious and a reason to wake up !

I think it is one of the biggest examples of why we are used as guinea pigs.
As it has everything what there is to see and to solve. To be free to be human again... instead of a product for making profit.
S&F Well done.

Since the link posted by the OP is broken, here is the Greenpeace document in pdf form for consultation or download:


The True Cost of Gene Patents


GS

This may provide some additional insight. Regarding the University of Utah...

The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret,[1] making it Utah's oldest institution of higher education.[3
wiki

The State of Deseret was a provisional state of the United States, proposed in 1849 by Latter-day Saint settlers in Salt Lake City. The provisional state existed for slightly over two years and was never recognized by the United States government. The name derives from the word for "honeybee" in the Book of Mormon.

wiki

The "honeybee" is also a hybrid as well as a symbol often used in free masonry. It is said that the Mormons have a link to Freemasonry.

The Mormon church seems to keep a lot of genealogical records. A lot of this looks suspicious to me.

Original records -- about 2.4 million rolls of microfilm containing 2 billion names that have been traced -- are locked away behind 14-ton doors in the Granite Mountain Records Vault, a climate-controlled repository designed to survive a nuclear impact that is built into the Wasatch mountain range, about 20 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.

In the mid-1990s, there was a backlash when it was uncovered that the names of about 380,000 Jewish Holocaust victims had been submitted for posthumous baptism....

The church created an index for every person counted in the 1880 U.S. census, the 1881 Canadian census and the 1881 British census. These records are freely available online, and images can be accessed at the Family History Library or a Family History Center.

In 2001, the LDS Church collaborated with the Ellis Island Foundation to build the American Family Immigration History Center and the Ellis Island Web site, which has the names of 22 million passengers and crew members who arrived in New York through Ellis Island between 1882 and 1924.

www.pbs.org...

reply to post by Getsmart


Thanks for that.

Yes, its known that they create psuedo laws, which are inherantly illegal in themselves as is every single patent and copyright law. There is no idea or any part of the natural world that anyone OWNS.

But, its up to us to tell them they're fired, and declare soveriegnty and opt out. Im willing, who is with me.

We're the glue holding this together. And we need to take it down too.

[edit on 3-3-2010 by Unity_99]