Between Beneficence and Chattel

The Human Biological in Law and Science

Bibliographic Data

ID4516388
AuthorsH Landecker (0000-0002-1282-9962, Max Planck Society, corresponding author)
Year1999
Volume12
Issue1
Pages203-225
Publication date1999-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience in Context (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0269-8897 • E-ISSN: 1474-0664
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0269889700003367
OpenAlexW2092963890
LanguageEN
Citations received26
References cited21

The ArgumentCell lines and other human-derived biological materials have since 1980 become valuable forms of patentable matter. This paper revisits the much-critiqued legal caseMoore v. Regents of the University of Cahfornia, in which John Moore claimed property rights in a patented cell line made from his spleen. Most work to date has critiqued the text of the decision and left the relevant scientific and technical literature unexamined. By mapping out the construction of discontinuity and continuity between human body and cell line in this literature, this paper provides a novel critique of the Moore case regarding the source and mobilization of scientific information in the decision. At the same time, the elisions of the case are used to move to a larger set of questions. Comparative material from the history of the first widely used cell line, HeLa, and a discussion of the relation of the scientific and economic value of cell lines, are aimed at analysis of how new objects such as patented human cell lines come into existence through science and law, and what kinds of definitions and practices make them valued objects of contention in the first place

Autonomy · Beneficence · Epistemology · Law and economics · Political science · Sociology · Biomedical Ethics and Regulation · Computer Science · CRISPR and Genetic Engineering · Law · Medicine · Philosophy · Xenotransplantation and immune response

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