Letter: Patents unlock gene secrets
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Your support makes all the difference.Sir: During the 18th and 19th centuries, chemists identified and isolated most of the chemical elements, the basic building blocks of the universe. Would we have been happy if they had then patented their discoveries? No, we would have been outraged. I suggest we should respond similarly to attempts to patent the "elements" of life.
ANDREW BELSEY
Centre for Applied Ethics
University of Wales
Cardiff
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