As biotechnology advances, the day may soon come for the creation of a self-aware, human-nonhuman chimera. The USPTO has ruled on whether a patent may issue on such an organism, but Congress must still legislate a dividing line between human and non-human patentable subject matter.
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References
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Rabin, S. The human use of humanoid beings: chimeras and patent law. Nat Biotechnol 24, 517–519 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0506-517
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0506-517