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Varieties of Secrets and Secret Varieties: The Case of Biotechnology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

Susan Wright  and
David A. Wallace
Susan Wright
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, USA
David A. Wallace
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, USA
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Abstract

This article examines several trends that have combined to veil the new field of biotechnology in secrecy: the transformation of biotechnology from an essentially academic field characterized by strong norms of openness to a field with extensive corporate connections that have reached even to research in leading universities; the establishment of intellectual property rights for life-forms initiated by the landmark Supreme Court decision, Diamond vs. Chakrabarty; and the limiting of public access to information about the genetically altered organisms whose use in agriculture, industry, and medicine falls under government controls. The article also examines the effects of the U.S. biotechnology industry's demand for secrecy on the negotiations for a protocol to the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, particularly the turn from requirements for transparency to protection of opacity with respect to biotechnology and other biological processes, equipment, and production.

Type
Secrecy in Biotechnology
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , March 2000 , pp. 45 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

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