163
ILLUSTRATIVE OPPOSITION
the private dimensions of this crisis, we need to look for historical novelties,
asking: What makes this form of injustice distinctive and new? By addressing
such questions, we examine the particular implications of patenting for private
life in general, exploring novel ways in which patenting disrupts bodily
integrity, reducing cell-lines to marketable materials to be owned and hoarded
by corporations.
Next, we would critique life-patenting in relation to the public dimension
of the social sphere. Here, we would explore such issues as capitalist
production,
consumption,
and
public
education
as
they
relate
to
biotechnology. We may point to moments of commodification and ownership
of life forms as well as corporations’ search for ever new colonies (biological as
well as social) for never-ending expansion. As we recognize the particular
urgency of this crisis, we may point to what makes this particular crisis
distinctive, asking: What makes biotechnology different from, and potentially
more harmful than, other forms of commodified scientific practice? Or, what
makes life patenting different from other forms of colonialism? Or, how does
the imperialistic devaluation of local indigenous knowledge and life itself
‘legitimize’ the patenting of species used in indigenous agricultural and
medicinal practices?
As we critique the implications of patenting for the social sphere, we may
explore the novel impacts of such practice on institutions of public education.
Here we may explore how patenting practices inform research agendas and
funding priorities within microbiology departments in universities throughout
the United States and much of Europe. In particular, we may begin to examine
the increasingly intimate relationship between publicly funded researdi and
private
industry.10 This
relationship is
changing dramatically as
public
universities grow increasingly dependent on private industry for funding, and
as biotechnology industries become attractive and socially accepted research
arenas for scientists. We must explore the implication of scientific practice
within a context in which increasingly, scientists conduct research out of
personal economic interest, rather than out of the ‘love’ of ‘pure’ science.
When we engage in the critical moment, we may also show moments of
resistance which show the limits of hegemony itself. For instance, we would
explore how in India, farmers have engaged for years in an ongoing struggle
against World Trade Organization (WTO) proposals on agriculture and
intellectual property rights which would allow transnational
companies
monopolize the production and distribution of seeds and other aspects of
Third World agriculture. We might explore an earlier struggle, in October of
1995, in which a half-million Indian farmers from Karnataka took part in a
day-long procession and rally in the South Indian
city of Bangalore,
constituting die largest display of public opinion anywhere in die world eidier