Sir, - I refer to the article by Carol Coulter (July 16th), in which she states that all Irish MEPs voted against the proposal for a gene patent law in 1995. This statement is incorrect, as I did not vote against the proposal. At the time of the vote I had gone back to Dublin to attend a Fine Gael Parliamentary party meeting. I did, however, vote in favour of the proposal when the vote was taken within my group and I would have gone on to vote in accordance with the group line at the Parliament session had I been there.
Then as now, while I can understand why some people regard this matter as very sensitive, the parliament is simply seeking to regulate a practice which is on-going. If parliament fails to carry out such regulation, it will not mean that gene research will stop; it will just become more secretive and in the end fewer people will benefit. Those who want to secure legal protection for their inventions will simply move to the US or Japan, thereby extending to the citizens of these countries benefits which could have been kept for our own citizens. - Yours, etc., JOE McCARTIN, MEP,
European Parliament,
Strasbourg.