Information technologies and the life sciences

Abstract

"One of the major issues that needs to be addressed in this brave new world in the making is the ownership of biological information, and, in particular, human biological information. There are many examples from around the world of rampant bio-piracy the double standards adopted – global harmonisation of measures to curb the piracy of cultural goods as opposed to the rather lax approach to dealing with global bio-piracy – are profoundly disturbing. There is, however, a key issue here. When an intangible – „information‟ as means and ends – becomes the de facto „real‟ version of a tangible product – animal tissue, genes, cell lines – what is really happening and how should we deal with it? We need to remember that information and digital information are inherently non-rivalrous resources. As economists would put it, consumption/reading of this article does not curb, limit or take away from another person‟s consumption of the very same product. In this sense it can potentially be read, circulated and accessed by all within the entire online world irrespective of boundaries, status and ability to pay. An informational product is unlike biscuits and toothpaste that are products of industrial manufacture based on tangible raw materials that need either to be grown in the field or manufactured in a lab or factory. Non-informational goods generally tend to be finite."