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From: lum@brachiosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (Lum Johnson)
Newsgroups: talk.bizarre,misc.legal,talk.politics.misc,misc.jobs.misc,sci.bio
Subject: Re: Are Animals Patentable?
Message-ID: <11285@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 21 Apr 88 23:04:22 GMT
References: <97500013@prism> <4872@xanth.cs.odu.edu> <9915@tekecs.TEK.COM> <1205@qiclab.UUCP>
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Organization: The Ohio State University, IRCC/CIS Computing Laboratory
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In article <1205@qiclab.UUCP> leonard@qiclab.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) writes:
<In article <9915@tekecs.TEK.COM> andrew@frip.gwd.tek.com (Andrew Klossner) writes:
<<The patent office ... will not accept patents for new [species] of humans
<<because of the thirteenth amendment....  ...  [W]e've established that an
<<animal with at least one human gene is patentable.  And we know that an
<<animal with 100% human genes is not.  Where will the line be drawn?
<
<[It will be found] that there are some "humans" who don't fit the
<definition ... unless the definition is such that some creatures considered
<"non-human" now will be "human" under it.  Both outcomes will cause great
<outcry.  ...  (... I'd be surprised if it happened in 5 years, and even
<more surprised if it *didn't* happen in 25!)

I would be surprised if humans can make such a decision without yet another
major war.  The civilized thing would be to accept that any organism which
can demand (in any appropriate manner) its civil rights should be granted
them, but I doubt that we as a species could be considered civilized.
Corrupt would be closer to the truth.

But, no one ever said that we would be able to play god with impunity.
I suggest that those who didn't take Mary Shelley's _Frankenstein_
seriously reconsider the lesson hidden under the story.

-=-
Lum Johnson    lum@osu-20.ircc.ohio-state.edu    lum@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
"You got it kid -- the large print giveth and the small print taketh away."