We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, April 26, 2013

Are Genes Patentable? An Insider's Review of the ACLU's Supreme Court Argument on Gene Patenting

Click here to access article by Lenora M. Lapidus from American Civil Liberties Union

The ownership of property that can be used to extract wealth from other citizens has always been a cornerstone of capitalism, and it doesn't matter to the people who own such property if this arrangement causes widespread suffering in any form to the rest of humanity. People with sociopathic tendencies are attracted to this system and the ownership of such property which ultimately gives them and their heirs enormous wealth, and with wealth comes the even more deleterious effect of enormous power. Such people constitute a socioeconomic class, also known as the One Percent or capitalists, who work daily to preserve and enhance their system.

In recent decades we've seen this class enter the world of biotechnology in search of more things to "own". Although the question in the title of this article is a fundamental one, it seems a little late to pose it. The courts controlled by the One Percent have already ruled that life forms created by tinkering with the basic ingredients (genes and DNA) of non-human life forms can be owned, so why not those of humans? The only thing that this class of people regard as sacred is property.