Presentation - Anne Mitchell - Canadian Council of Churches & The Oncomouse

Presentation - Anne Mitchell - Canadian Council of Churches & The Oncomouse

 

The Canadian Council of Churches and the Oncomouse case

 
We discussed the Oncomouse case in Canada: some of the background and the process that led
up to the Canadian Council of Churches and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada deciding to
seek Friend of the Court status to intervene before the Supreme Court of Canada on the patenting
of higher life forms. Canada became the only OECD country not to allow the patenting of
higher life forms. This remains the case today. We discussed this within the context of the
political climate in Canada and lessons that could be extrapolated from this case for other similar
issues related to genetic engineering. Documentation can be found on the Canadian Council of
Churches website—follow the biotechnology links.