Conceptual artist Larry Miller is making available his Genetic Code Copyright Certificates for US$10, so that anyone who wants to retains the rights to their DNA can register as an Original Human Being.
"After saving myself, I decided to save you too," says Miller, who has been exploring the legal and ethical issues surrounding cloning and genetic engineering for more than a decade, and was the first person on the planet to copyright his DNA, in 1989. The certificates are being made available through indie publisher Gates of Heck.
Miller was one of the original members of the Fluxus art scene - which has included John Cage, Yoko Ono, and Nam June Paik. Calling himself a "traveling DNA bard," he has issued more than 1,500 certificates since 1992, and says he has purchased the certificates - and therefore the "licensing rights" - of several people's genetic code. Now others are "buying and selling the rights like commodities."
"I don't assume that the certificate is legally binding," says Miller, who is more interested in making people think about what it means to own a genome than actually testing the validity of the certificates. After speaking to a lawyer about the legality of copyrighting DNA, he was told that it would be necessary to patent, not merely copyright, DNA in order to secure the rights of ownership. Legalities aside, Miller says the popularity of the certificates is a demonstration of grassroots support of the idea that individuals own the rights to their own DNA.
"Cloning is the biggest news since Darwin," says Miller. In May, he is opening a show in New York in which he will document his efforts to have himself cloned as a form of self-portraiture. "We have to be aware that science, and the genetic revolution, forces us to rethink intellectual property."
Miller is also contacting his senators to request that he be allowed to testify before the Senate panel established to investigate the ethical issues of genetics and human engineering. "They have scientists and lawyers testifying, why won't they invite artists?" he asks. Those would include artists who have worked for years creating art to help understand the implications of the cloning and patenting of DNA.
None of the members of the Clinton-established National Bioethics Advisory Commission are artists.
