Press Release 15/05/09

THE PRIVATIZATION OF LIVING MATTER AND HUNGER IN THE WORLD.
ON WHOSE SIDE DOES THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES STAND?

Press release by Guido Pollice, President of Verdi Ambiente e Società
and by Fabrizia Pratesi, Scientific Committee Coordinator of Equivita
 

During the study week scheduled from the 15^th to the 19^th of May in Rome to promote transgenic plants, will the Pontifical Academy of Sciences be open to discuss the implications of the patentability of living matter? 

Up to now, GMOs have been allowed to spread due to a serious misinterpretation of the US Supreme Court (subsequently referred to worldwide). For the first time in the history of Mankind, in 1980 the aforesaid Court granted a patent on a living organism (also granting the patent on the basis of a “discovery” rather than an “invention”).

This has enabled large “corporations” (of rich Countries) to obtain a patent on plants, animals and even on parts of the human body (including embryos); it made it possible to convert the forms of life on our planet, our most precious common good, into private property. It also made it possible for a handful of multinational corporations to hold control over everything in the World that pertains to life.

Within the ongoing debate on GMOs, the issue of the privatization of genes of different varieties of plants and animal species, is the most sensitive point as it clearly reveals the contradictions underlying the agro-biotechnological development model, which contributes to starving the poorer populations of the South of the World, as well as destroying biodiversity and hindering scientific research.

The patentability of living matter denies any other value of life except for its economic value and, to quote Pope John Paul II, “interlinking power with knowledge […] makes us lose sight of the individual as a whole, made of body and spirit”.

VAS Verdi Ambiente e Società, Comitato Scientifico EQUIVITA and Ambientescienze ask that the Pontifical Academy of Sciences carefully ponder the words of Pope John Paul II who said: “Besides challenging the Creation and the work of God, OGMs trample human dignity and show disrespect for life”.     

For further information, please contact:

Press Office of VAS: +39  06/3608181 – +39 329/1328437

Press Office of Equivita: +39  063/220720 – +39  335/8444949 
 
 

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