Who Owns The Human Genome? Lyrics

How dare you claim the right to make a healthy profit
By patenting an enzyme and making millions off it
Legal it may be, but can't you see your newfound wealth
Comes at the expense of other people's health

Chorus:
Patenting parts of nature makes no sense
Why should it be legal for them to make their millions
Off the ingenuity of the mother earth
Who owns the human genome? WE DO!

Companies like those who sell cigarettes have as their daily fare
Hurting people to make big bucks, and obviously, they don't care

But Research in biotech began as a quest to help people
Yet tragically like so much else in our society
It has now been transformed into the quest for cash
Leaving us with more rich corporations and less knowledge

How dare you claim the credit for the creating that gene you took
You created nothing! You merely thought of where to look
Proteins designed and built by humans have yet to be seen
Mix and match and get lucky is not what creation means

Chorus

This system of genetic patents bares a striking similarity
To the ownership of land
Which plays such a fundamental role in the vast
Difference of wealth between the rich and the poor

Who knows how far this will go if it is allowed to persist
Will we see the emergence of a brand new class of genetically poor?

The genes you're born with are the ones your whole life with
There is no form of social mobility here