Reference no: EM132954080

Council for Responsible Genetics (CRG), opposes all forms of patenting life for following reasons. As a biologist, you may find reasons to contest their positions. Find counterarguments from opponents on each matter.

(1) Patents promote unsustainable and inequitable agricultural policies. A disastrous decline in genetic diversity could be the result of patenting of crop species. The genetic diversity inherent in living systems makes patent claims difficult to defend. The development of genetically uniform organisms would make it easier for corporations to maintain their patent claims. Biotech companies holding broad spectrum patents on food crops will lure farmers to grow modified varieties with promises of greater yields and disease resistance. However, numerous examples worldwide show the "improved" crops have failed to hold up to corporate promises, and led to the loss of the rich diversity of traditional crop varieties.

(2) First World patenting of Third World genetic resources represents theft of community resources. Patents held by the industrialized world on resources from the developing world will serve as a tool for the North to accumulate more wealth from the already economically impoverished South. Microorganisms, plants, animals and even the genes of indigenous people have been patented for the production of pharmaceuticals and other products. Requiring developing nations to pay royalties to the wealthy industrial nations for products derived from their own natural resources and innovation is robbery.

(3) Patents on living organisms are morally objectionable to many. Patenting organisms and their DNA promotes the concept that life is a commodity and the view that living beings are "gene machines" to be exploited for profit. If it is possible to consider a modified animal an invention, are patents and marketing of human reproductive cells far behind? Patents derive from concepts of individual innovation and ownership, which may be foreign to cultures which emphasize the sharing of community resources and the free exchange of seeds and knowledge.