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by Mike Adams
the Health Ranger
November 02, 2010
from
NaturalNews Website
This is one of the most important issues
for the future of human civilization:
Who owns your genetic code? Based on
existing U.S. law, the corporations own it.
Right now, over 20% of your genetic code
is owned by biotech corporations (this is a fact).
But the U.S. Justice Department has just
issued a "friend of the court" briefing that looks poised to
overturn this, driving a stake through the heart of the intellectual
property monster known as the biotech industry.
This is a major reversal of decades of U.S. policy. If the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
enforces this new ruling, it would mean an end to all biotech
patents on human genes.
Effectively, it would set our genetic
code free from corporate domination.
Human genes
are part of nature, not a human invention
In its brief, the
Dept of Justice argued that genes
should not be patentable because they are part of
nature:
"The chemical structure of native
human genes is a product of nature, and it is no less a product
of nature when that structure is 'isolated' from its natural
environment than are cotton fibers that have been separated from
cotton seeds or coal that has been extracted from the earth..."
This makes sense, of course - it's the
same thing I've been arguing here on NaturalNews for years.
To allow corporations to own even a
small part of the human genome is a pathway to human slavery. We
have been headed down that path for a long time, and now for the
first time it appears things may be turning for the better.
The insanity
of modern patent law
Few reasonable people would argue that U.S. patent law as it exists
today makes any real sense in the first place. Patents are supposed
to offer legal protection for "man-made inventions."
The whole idea that you can patent human
genes is ridiculous from the outset.
Human genetic code was obviously not invented by humans, and
especially not by one person or corporation. To grant a corporation
an intellectual property monopoly over even a single human gene is
an affront to human heritage and a violation of natural law. That
this has already happened is a crime against humanity.
Theoretically, such patents actually give corporations the right to
charge royalties when couples reproduce because by having a
baby, you are "replicating" a patented gene without permission.
Thus, you could be guilty of patent violation and be forced to pay a
royalty to the patent owner.
Fast forward this a few decades under a country controlled by
corporate interests, and you can see where it ends up:
Just to have a baby, you might have
to pay $100,000 in royalty payments to dozens of different
corporations who own "your" genetic code. This would all be
enforced by local police officers and sheriffs who might arrest
you at gunpoint for your acts of "corporate piracy" (getting
pregnant).
Don't think it could happen?
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Check out the history of
the RIAA and its
intellectual property war against the people
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Look at what
Monsanto has done to
farmers who accidentally grew GMO crops because
the GMO seeds blew into
their fields
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Look what
Myriad Genetics is doing
right now with its patent on human breast cancer genes
BRCA1 and
BRCA2 - it's charging
$3,000 a pop to run a simple test that determines whether
women carry those genes
Make no mistake:
When you hand monopoly control to a
corporation, that corporation will exploit it to its fullest
extent, even if it means destroying human lives in the
process.
Why stop at
genes? Seeds should also be set free
If the USPTO disallows all patents on human genes, then by the same
logic there should be no patents allowed on seeds or animals,
either.
The patenting of seeds is yet another
method by which powerful corporations like
Monsanto
and
DuPont may effectively enslave the
human race by controlling the food supply.
To remove patent protection from seeds is to destroy the seed
monopolies that these dangerous, destructive corporations depend on
to enforce their control over the seed supply. And it is due to
patent protection on seeds that we have already lost a tremendous
amount of seed diversity in the agricultural seed markets.
Patents on genes and seeds are the enemy of freedom. They are the
shackles that keep farmers and consumers enslaved by corporate
interests. To see that these patents now have the potential to be
disallowed entirely gives us a glimmer of hope that corporate
domination over the human race may be effectively resisted.
Because, let's face it:
If governments of the world continue
to hand over our genes, seeds and medicines to the monopolistic,
greed-driven corporations that have already destroyed our farms,
contaminated our food supply and poisoned our bodies with
synthetic chemicals, then the People of the world will
ultimately be driven to the point of armed, violent resistance
against their corporate oppressors.
There is only so much tyranny the People
will take before they rise up against their oppressors and fight
back.
Today's decision by the Dept of Justice may have averted that future
bloodshed scenario - at least over the issue of genes and seeds.
Long-term peace can only emerge when the People have their freedom
and do not feel as if they are living under the threat of constant
oppression by governments, corporations or other institutions of
power.
Every social revolution in the history
of human civilization has involved a popular uprising against
institutions that violated natural law and human freedom.
And patents on genes and seeds are a
violation of natural law.
Patents on
many of Big Pharma's drugs are also a violation of natural law
For several years now, I have publicly called for all patents on
genes, seeds and animals to be declared invalid. I've even gone
further, calling for all patents on medicines to also be declared
invalid, although such a move is highly unlikely to take place
anytime soon.
Can you imagine what would happen to
Big Pharma if all the chemicals
they stole from Mother Nature and then patented were suddenly
declared "open source?"
Big Pharma would collapse within a year, and the citizens of
the USA would be set free to pursue natural medicine that works
rather than conventional medicine forced upon them under a
monopolistic racket protected by the FDA and the USPTO.
Medicine should belong to the People, especially when
much of it is sourced from plants in the first place.
I believe that the People have a natural right to water, natural
medicine, seeds and their own genes, too.
To impede the public's access to such
natural, global resources is a violation of natural law and should
be resisted by any and all means necessary.
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