Custom-Edited DNA: Legal Limits on the Patentability of CRISPR-Cas9'S Therapeutic Applications

Imagine a future where large corporations use CRISPR, a genetic editing tool, to modify almost every living thing. Perfectly manicured lawns are comprised of genetically-modified grasses, people adore their genetically-modified pets, and parents select only the best traits to be carried by their genetically-modified children. This is a future T. Coraghassen Boyle recently imagined in a short story in The New Yorker. In Boyle's story, genetic editing is supposed to lead to perfect happiness by removing all flaws from the natural world. The only catch is that the new, genetically perfect world feels wholly unnatural to some of the people living in it. The dystopian future envisioned in Boyle's story is fast becoming scientifically possible.