ASPETTI CONCETTUALI DELLA PROPRIETÀ INTELLETTUALE DEL MATERIALE GENETICO

Since the development of molecular biology, in the first half of Twentieth Century, genes and DNA are conceived using several metaphors and conceptual frames: genetic information, a text, a book, a blueprint, a computer program, the destiny of the individual. I have searched and analyzed these conceptual frames in the debate about the patentability of DNA, in particular in the Myriad case (Ass'n for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, US Supreme Court). In the arguments against genetic patents there is a prevalence of holistic and nondeterminism metaphors (DNA as the book or the language of life, or as the soul of the individual); in the arguments for genetic patents, the DNA is often conceived as a chemical compound or with deterministic and mechanical metaphors (DNA as a blueprint).