Davis-Cohen’s reading of the Supreme Court hearing of arguments in Bowman v. Monsanto suggests that the essential philosophical, ethical and moral questions underlying the case were not and will not be addressed by the court.

Self-replication is a requirement for the continuation of life itself. When species participate in the replication of other species – when we plant our favorite tomato, when a butterfly pollinates its favorite flower – it is said that they co-evolve. This power to co-evolve and self-replicate is inherent, yet we find ourselves with our backs against the wall, fighting to retain it. In Bowman v. Monsanto, the US Supreme Court will soon decide who has rights to Genetically Modified (GM) seeds’ power to self-replicate.

On February 19, 2013, the Supreme Court heard arguments on whether patent law extends to the offspring of GM seed and self-replicating “technologies.” The case involves Monsanto, a corporation that genetically modifies plant genes, patents those genes and then sells GM seed and the pesticides the seed has been genetically modified to resist to farmers, versus a farmer, Hugh Bowman, who planted descendants of Monsanto seed without the corporation’s permission. Monsanto, whose former vice president Michael Taylor is the deputy commissioner for foods at the Food and Drug Administration, argued that its patent on the GM genes within the original seed was violated when Bowman planted and replicated the progeny of that seed. Bowman argued that those who purchase seed not only have a right to the crop from the original seed but also that crop’s ability to self-replicate.

The case has gained attention not only because of the implications for self-replicating technologies but also because of the philosophical questions attached. Computer software can self-replicate. GM genes, through their living host, can self-replicate. Plants self-replicate. But where does life end and technology begin? When does a GM species have rights; when is it property? And what rights do species that co-evolved with previously unmodified species have, if any? When is something an autonomous creature, free to self-replicate, and when is it a technology whose self-replicates can be patented and owned by another?

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