Daniel Kevles on Patenting Life

Video via http://realserver.law.duke.edu/ramgen/spring05/pubdomain/04072005.rm

Description

"Since the late 1970s, patents have been issued on living organisms and their parts, including microrganisms, plants, animals, and genes. These developments enjoy strong support in a number of quarters, including the biotechnology industry, university technology transfer offices, and the patent bar. However, they have also stimulated widespread dissent in the academy and among patients' rights groups, religious groups, and social activists. Part of the dissent is ethical, a consideration that has no place in U.S. patent law but does explicitly appear in European patent law. Professor Kevles discussed these and other issues during his lecture. Kevles is the Stanley Woodward Professor of History and Adjunct Professor of Law at Yale University." (http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/lectures/)