Dr Aisling McMahon publishes article in Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics on ethical issues related to the patentability of novel beings & advanced biotechnologies

Monday, June 14, 2021 - 09:15

Dr Aisling McMahon has published an article in the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics  (CQHE) entitled: “Patents, Governance and Control: Ethics and the Patentability of Novel Beings and Advanced Biotechnologies in Europe.” Her article examines the extent to which ‘novel beings’-  i.e. beings which have been created by technical means (e.g. using artificial intelligence, advanced biotechnologies etc) and which display something akin to human consciousness or agency  - would be (or should be) patentable under current European patent law. This article is published as part of a special issue of the CQHE edited by Dr David Lawrence (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Sarah Morley (Newcastle University) which examines the regulatory and ethical issues related to novel beings.

Dr McMahon’s article examines the ethical issues related to the potential patentability of novel beings. Patents grant the patent holder a right to exclude others from using the patented invention for the period of patent grant (generally 20 years). This allows the patent holder to control how that ‘invention’ under patent can or cannot be used by others and this in turn, grants patent holders a governance like function over the patented technology for the duration of the patent. Accordingly, the potential for the grant of patents over novel beings gives rise to a myriad of ethical issues including: to what extent is it appropriate for patent holders to retain and exercise patents over “novel beings”; how issues of agency displayed by any “novel beings” developed would be accounted for, if at all, within the current patent framework; and to what extent existing exclusions from patentability might exclude patents on “novel beings” or whether changes within patent law may be needed in relation to “novel beings.” This article focuses on such issues, and in doing so, also sheds light on the role of ethical issues more generally within the patenting of advanced biotechnologies in Europe.

The full article is available to read here

Dr McMahon is an Assistant Professor of Law in Maynooth University Department of Law where she teaches modules including Patents, health and biotechnologies, and Contemporary issues in medicine and the law. Her research focuses on health and patent law, and she is particularly interested in the role of patents as private governance instruments and the impact of intellectual property holders decisions on access to and delivery of healthcare.