One big American company has allegedly already refused to
share its findings with publicly funded researchers.
It
is now commonplace for American doctors to claim to own
potentially life-saving medical procedures.
Evenour own human genetic make-up is being snapped up by
greedy doctors and scientists turned entrepreneurs . One
third of human genome which has so far been mapped is
privately owned. A staggering eight thousand USA patents
have been issued on HUMAN GENES and METHODS and TECHNIQUES
related to their existence. Like it or not we are
likely to wake up one day soon and find out our bodies are
owned by Americans. Fall over and graze your arm and you'll
have an American lawyer on your doorstep claiming $5 million
because you have damaged HIS PROPERTY.
Already in the USA, hospitals are fighting researchers about
who owns NEW TREATMENTS, and genetic engineering firms are
spending FORTUNES on LAWYERS as they claim patents over bits
and pieces of the HUMAN BODY
American courts have even stopped doctors prescribing
treatments when rival companies have claimed to own part of
the underlying technology.
For example, cancer patients in the USA have been refused
treatment with a drug made by one company because the second
company claims its rights are being infringed - even though
it does not have an alternative drug to offer.
Two things -
apart from greed and absence of any sense of public responsibility among
American doctors, scientists and businessmen - are helping to make this
greed-fest into a serious problem.
First, the
rules about obtaining patents have changed in the USA. In the old days
you could get a patient if you came up new type of wheel. these days you
can even get a patent ( and therefore a monopoly) on the idea of having
a wheel. (You probably think I'm exaggerating. I'm not.
USA patent No
5,707,114 is entitled
'Vehicle
wheel'