DNA Patents and the Invisible Citizen: The Role of the General Public in Life Science Governance

Abstract

In 1998, the EU passed a Directive establishing the legality of DNA patents in European law. DNA patenting constitutes a commercial incentive for life science research and forms part of a wider commercial restructuring of life science research infrastructure. The patent field has been characterised by a relative institutional homogeneity promoting commercial incentives as vehicles for scientific innovation. Public consultation has been used extensively to democratise the governance of life science but not in relation to DNA patenting. Based on data from the first set of interviews with the general public in Europe on DNA patenting, we argue that public consultation in this area could benefit policy making by introducing greater awareness of the plurality of views on commercial incentives for research prevalent in the general public. Some people express concerns about commercial incentives for research, especially in health and medicine. We demonstrate that some of the concerns seem justified when viewed in the context of current developments; therefore, we argue that public consultation could inspire a more socially robust research infrastructure which is more conducive to maintaining public trust. However, there is a tendency to limit the use of public consultation to issues relating to specific technologies (rather than the infrastructures bringing them about), possibly because here the active participation of the general public is needed in the roles of consumers or donors – rather than as citizens providing a counterweight to techno-bureaucracies.