NCJ Number
189762
Journal
Politics and the Life Sciences Volume: 19 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2000 Pages: 45-57
Date Published
March 2000
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This article examines several trends that have combined to keep the new field of biotechnology secret.
Abstract
One trend is the transformation of biotechnology from an essentially academic field characterized by strong norms of openness to a field with extensive corporate connections that have reached even to research in leading universities. Another is the establishment of intellectual property rights for life forms initiated by the landmark Supreme Court decision, Diamond vs. Chakrabarty. And another is the limiting of public access to information about the genetically altered organisms whose use in agriculture, industry, and medicine falls under government controls. The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), which bans the development, production, stockpiling, and transfer of biological and toxin weapons, was negotiated in 1969 – 1972. Today, some 27 years after the completion of the BWC, the emergence of strong norms of secrecy in the civilian sector is having a significant impact on the further elaboration of this agreement. There has been an impact particularly on the efforts now under way to strengthen the convention by negotiating a legally binding protocol with compliance and verification provisions. The turn from requirements for transparency to protection of opacity with respect to biotechnology and other biological processes, equipment, and protection has also had an impact. In the absence of other, overriding factors, concerns with protection of trade secrets have so far haunted the collective consciousness of the biotechnology industry, and have influenced national policy. 25 notes and 64 references.