Gene Patenting Of Human Genetic Resources Protection

Genes are fragments of DNA molecule, the sequences of nucleotides (or bases) in genes represents hereditary of human beings and other creatures. It not only could transmit all these information through replication, but also could dominate organism's character by control the process of synthesizing protein, which called Gene Expression. The distinction of different folks and creatures can be owed to the distinction of genes. Nowadays the studies of human genome have shown the ability of making huge profits. In fact, gene patent and the protection of human genetic resources are two aspects of one question. Because human genetic resources are very limited resources, lots of multinational medicine (or biotech) companies and institute had patented thousands of human DNA sequences since 1980s. As to these developing countries that are so weak at biotech and the state of economy, they had to pursue co-operation with developed countries to improve their biotechnology and share these profits. Another question must be taken into consideration is whether the donor of the human genetic material have right on these information in these materials and what kind of right this is . In this article, after analyzing the question of gene patent, the author discusses the legal status of the donor of human genetic materials, and also give some suggestion on the protection of the donor and compensation of them.This article has four parts.The first part introduce gene science and Human Genome Project concisely, and some relevant technology knowledge, and attitudes of different parties toward biotech, HGP and gene patent.in the second part, this article discusses some questions related to gene patent, then concludes that just like with product of nature, on the question of many countries did not obey thedoctrine of discovery or invention strictly. This article believes that patent system itself could not play the role of assuring the science and technology developing along with the way, which will be considered moral and ethical by all the society.In the third part, this article introduces the case of MOORE in American at first. Then the author discusses the legal status of donor of human genetic materials in details, and analyzes a few opinions on this question, and the author believes in this article that we should protect the genetic information from certain individual's body cell as a part of body and privacy.In the last part, the article discusses the "Interim Measures for the Administration of Human Genetic Resources" of our country, and gives some advices.