Google accused of biopiracy

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this is about access

Whether or not genomic information is available for free or not
is not the point - the important point is facilitating access
without consent. when you download a document from the
internet (via google) you have the implied consent of the person
who posted it to that public space that it is now for common use
- this is enough because this is only data and nothing much
more - it is not as personal as genomic information.

By contrast when you access somebody's genomic data you
need to have explicit consent because this is something very
personal that has an important bearing on their identity, health,
personhood etc

.If google makes all personal genomic data available to anyone
to use as they will it is also making that available to profit
making enterprises to profit by and its not clear how they could
put in place an adequarte consent mechanism to do this. This
data is not googles to redistribute (it shouldn't even be craig
venters...)

Its also misleading to think that this data is going to be freely
and equally available to everyone in common - only certain
specialized knowledge enterprises have the ability to make use
of such data and by and large they are private, for profit and
won't redistribute a penny back to the people whose genomic
information they are using.

Genomic information is not like software code and its wrong to
compare them - it has very personal implications for individuals
and communities- when you use that information without
explicit consent there is a victim.

Posted by: genewatcher   Posted on: 03/30/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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