Selected Reform Responsa PATENTING GENETIC ENGINEERING

QUESTION: May genetically engineered changes in a mouse designed for medical experiments be patented?(Arthur Gershman, Arlington, Va.)

ANSWER: The members of the Responsa Committee that discussed this question felt a high degree of discomfort with patenting changes in a living creature. The animal itself should not be patented. An animal, in contrast to a plant, possesses an additional element of the sacred(although the medieval discussion of whether an animal possesses a soul was inconclusive and left to the“days of the Messiah”). According to our tradition, animals possess a special relationship with human beings.

Social policy has led to plant patents. This has protected the livelihood of individuals and made a more abundant human existence possible. Patenting an animal, however, leads us in a direction not conductive to respect for life. The Holocaust has made us aware of the dangers of dehumanization, the process, that is the genetic change, may be patented but the mouse itself should not be patented.

If we look at patents and the protection they offer within Judaism , we realize that the notion of protecting an idea or a newly created work is fairly new. There were periods in our history when the originator of a new work sought to make it seem old and thereby give it a greater acceptance. That was true of large anonymous sections of the Bible that have been added to various prophetic books, the apocryphal books, and of such works as the Zohar. In modern times we have sought to protect the creative efforts of individuals. We may link this to the traditional concern for protecting an individual’s livelihood. It was always considered important to ensure the livelihood of craftsman, artisans, teachers and tradesmen in the community by limiting the access of others or prohibiting it entirely. This was carefully balanced throughout the ages with a concern for the economic well being of the community and concern about a potential monopoly that might drive prices excessively high(M BM 4.5; B B 21a; Kid59a and commentaries;