Cultural background of the ethical and social debate about biotechnology

Abstract

Behind the issue of patentability of biotechnological inventions lies the larger issue of the moral status of biotechnology. To whatever degree both issues may in practice be connected, i'or clarity's sake they have to be distinguished. The first one is basically a problem of ownership. The second one is related to the eu- or irnmorality of man-induced modifications of natural organisms. Sometimes patentability-related problelns and questions are mobilised as arguments against biotechnology in general. This is not, I think, what one should do. One could argue against the patentability of inventions as such, but this is not what is at stake in the present discussion. What stirs up all the commotion is the question of the patentability of a specific kind of invention, viz. biotechnological inventions. What then is so special about biotechnology'?