This paper offers a different pragmatic and patent-based approach to concerns regarding the negative effects of genetic-based patenting on advancing scientific research and providing adequate and accessible health care services. At the basis of this approach lies an explication of a mandatory provisional patented paper procedure (PPPA), designed for genetic-based patents and administered by leading scientific journals in the field, while officially acknowledged by the USPTO, and subsequently by other patent offices as well. It is argued that the uniqueness of (...) PPPAs lies in subsequently mitigating the negative ramifications of genetic patents on scientific research and genetic-based health care services, while basing such mitigation on a patents’ advocate viewpoint that neither discards the patent system nor jeopardizes its integrity. (shrink)

Ao colocar em evidência a legitimidade de uma instituição defendida por Locke, ou seja, o direito genérico que todos os membros da espécie humana têm de utilizar os recursos da natureza para preservar a sua existência, fca nítido que a propriedade privada exclusiva só é justifcável com o acréscimo de obrigações sociais rigorosas, apresentadas pelo próprio autor, para garantir que ela não prejudique a preservação da existência de qualquer dos membro da espécie, pelo simples fato de que a realidade de (...) uma instituição não pode contradizer o fundamento que lhe confere legitimidade. A partir disso, este texto se propõe a contestar a conclusão de Matthew Kramer de que a tentativa de Locke de estabelecer a legitimidade da propriedade privada no estado de natureza está fadada ao fracasso. (shrink)

During the past decade, Si Xiao, Xianglong Zhang, Xiangcheng Sun and others have proposed a Confucian Philosophy of Family movement as a response to issues in contemporary China. These issues...

Opposition to `ownership' of cells and tissues often depends on arguments about the special or sacred nature of human bodies and other living things. Such arguments are not very helpful in dealing with the patenting of DNA fragments. Two arguments undergird support for patenting: the notion that an author has a `right' to an invention resulting from his/her labor, and the utilitarian argument that patents are needed to support medical inventiveness. The labor theory of ownership rights is subject to critique, (...) though it may still have enduring value. The more important argument is that deriving from the common good. If patents on DNA are supported on the basis of their contributions to the common good, then they can also be limited based on considerations of the common good. (shrink)

Opposition to `ownership' of cells and tissues often depends on arguments about the special or sacred nature of human bodies and other living things. Such arguments are not very helpful in dealing with the patenting of DNA fragments. Two arguments undergird support for patenting: the notion that an author has a `right' to an invention resulting from his/her labor, and the utilitarian argument that patents are needed to support medical inventiveness. The labor theory of ownership rights is subject to critique, (...) though it may still have enduring value. The more important argument is that deriving from the common good. If patents on DNA are supported on the basis of their contributions to the common good, then they can also be limited based on considerations of the common good. (shrink)