Genes: Exchange and Property

The question of whether a bioscientific product remains a product of nature, or whether it should be newly defined as a human invention, is a central problem in intellectual property cases. Through the prism of genes this chapter explores law’s property relation to nature. It engages the anthropological problem of exchange from the perspective of biolegality. We examine how debates around the patenting of human genes become more and more complex with the promises of synthetic biology and living modified organisms, and, finally, with the emergence of genetic sequencing and the proliferation of sequence data. Throughout we ask, is law simply accommodating these developments and regulating new technologies based on social values, policies, and ethical principles? Or is biological research and inventiveness redefining biology and reconfiguring how law understands nature?