[olefoo]

just because patents are the regulatory regime that exist at this time, in this place does not mean that that is the only way to regulate and encourage research in any given field of endeavor.

Given the extremity of the consequences and the enormity of the benefits that the biological sciences could provide us; it is worth questioning a regulatory regime that provides such painful distortions of society and that seems to act as much to prevent the benefits from being widespread as it does to allow the researchers to evade liability for the negative externalities.