supreme court rules genes may not be patented
 

this regarding human genes?

Yes. It's really too important to discuss here.

that's true...would we own our organs grown from our stem cells???

govt cloned humans shortly after dolly if you dont understand that youre helpless

well, yeah, metal gear solid 2 proved that.

I recommend this book:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Immortal-L.../dp/1594134324

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer whose cancer cells - taken without her knowledge - became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first 'immortal' human tissue grown in culture, HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the effects of the atom bomb; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and, have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta herself remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey in search of Henrietta's story, from the 'coloured' ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live, and struggle with the legacy of her cells. Full of warmth and questing intelligence, astonishing in scope and impossible to put down, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.

'Natural' genes cannot be patented but synthetics can. That opens a door for industry to take a gene, duplicate it, modify it slightly, and patent it. I wonder, if you use a patented synthetic gene to make your kid taller, would you have to pay the patent owner when they decide to procreate and pass on that gene, or possibly tell you that you can't procreate because you haven't bought a license to 'distribute' the gene? Oh, the possibilities for making money...

Hopefully this will be used as precedent to stop patenting genetic information of any type. Shit is fucked up and bullshit.

I knew that a country without a patent office and good patent laws was just a crab, and couldn't travel any way but sideways or backways. -Mark Twain