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Corporate Control of Life.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Mudarris-i Avval, Akbar.
- Series:
- dOCUMENTA (13): 100 Notes, 100 Thoughts ; 12
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Biology.
- Biopolitics.
- Critical theory.
- Information commons.
- Genre:
- Tracts (Ephemera)
- Pamphlets.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource.
- Place of Publication:
- Hatje Cantz, 2012.
- [Place of publication not identified], Hatje Cantz, 2012.
- Summary:
- "Life in all its variety and diversity is rapidly becoming the "property" of corporations through patents and "intellectual property rights." A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention. Life, however, is not an invention. We can modify life-forms, we can manipulate living organisms. But we do not create life. The first patent on life was granted to General Electric for a genetically engineered bacterium. In 1971, General Electric and one of its employees, Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty, applied for a U.S. patent on a genetically engineered Pseudomonas bacterium. Taking plasmids from three kinds of bacteria, Chakrabarty transplanted them into a fourth. As he explained, "I simply shuffled genes, changing bacteria that already existed." Chakrabarty was granted his patent on the grounds that the microorganism was not a product of nature, but his invention and, therefore, patentable. As Andrew Kimbrell, a leading U.S. lawyer, recounts, "In coming to its precedent-shattering decision, the court seemed unaware that the inventor himself had characterized his 'creation' of the microbe as simply 'shifting' genes, not creating life." On such slippery grounds, the first patent on life was granted, and, in spite of the exclusion of plants and animals from patenting under U.S. law, the United States has since rushed to grant patents on all kinds of life-forms..."-- provided by distributor.
- Notes:
- Archived and cataloged by Library Stack
- Standard Copyright.
- Description based on online resource landing page (Library Stack, viewed on 2026-05-11).
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