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PROPERTY RIGHTS, GENES, AND COMMON GOOD
Author(s) -
Reed Esther D.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of religious ethics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.306
H-Index - 20
eISSN - 1467-9795
pISSN - 0384-9694
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9795.2006.00255.x
Subject(s) - intellectual property , liberalism , property (philosophy) , human rights , property rights , law and economics , law , political science , sociology , philosophy , politics , epistemology
This paper applies aspects of Hugo Grotius's theologically informed theory of property to contemporary issues concerning access to the human DNA sequence and patenting practices. It argues that Christians who contribute to public debate in these areas might beneficially employ some of the concepts with which he worked—notably “common right,” the “right of necessity,” and “use right.” In the seventeenth century, wars were fought over trading rights and access to the sea. In the twenty‐first century, information and intellectual property are the issues of the day. Grotius's writings serve to correct the overemphasis in modern liberalism on individual rights, and have practical application to the debate concerning the reduction of the human genome to the status of private property.