Talk:Human Genome Diversity Project
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Um... a little funny that in the "potential problems" it doesn't mention the one that really sunk HGDP -- patenting of indigenous genes! I'll try to shore this up a bit at some point... --Fastfission 02:59, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Will the HGD Project patent these samples? No, the Project does not intend to patent the samples or any products made from them.
But so far, the diversity project has been "more controversy than project," according to Henry Greely, chair of the ethics subcommittee for the group's North American branch. Just as the HGDP was getting off the ground, the National Institutes of Health, an unrelated organization, received a patent on a cell line of a virus derived from the blood sample of a Papua New Guinea man. Although no human DNA was actually patented - in fact, the patent was later terminated - indigenous rights groups were alarmed by the very possibility and suspicious of the HGDP agenda. The Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) even accused the diversity project of biocolonialism, declaring that "the thin veneer of the HGDP as an academic, noncommercial exercise has been shattered by the US government patenting an indigenous person." That the HGDP had no patent aspirations was lost in the ensuing outcry.
69.181.82.221 22:44, 11 September 2005 (UTC)
...like The ETC Group and other NGOs... What is an NGO? Please define your acronyms. --Eddylyons 19:19, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Good source
Human Genome Diversity Project raises serious ethical issues
