"Victoria Clare" wrote in message
. 240.10...
(Nick Maclaren) wrote in news:c6qbg3$ek6$1
@pegasus.csx.cam.ac.uk:
snip

I believe that patenting a living thing is not, and should not be, the
same
as patenting a simple gadget.

I once worked in a garden centre (nearly 25 years ago).
Many of our plants were sold at 1p each when sold by the dozen, e.g.hedging.
It was a large GC, with a drive through, sheds, office, parking and off
course ourselves there to serve and inform.
Yet.... somehow... many customers resented paying anything at all for plants
and did so on similar grounds to your objections to patenting plants.
Interestingly, many of these objectors were farmers who would not have taken
kindly to the idea that they should do the same with their produce. But
then, that folk for you... some just never think!
Plants, being as natural as water, they would argue, should be provided for
less than 1p each, or better still, free of charge, where free of charge
means just that and not free at point of sale with monies later withdrawn
from the public purse.
That such attitudes are still around today perhaps explains why an excellent
gardener can still only expect a pay rate which is a mere fraction of that
which is automatically awarded to say, a thoroughly incompetent solicitor,
accountant, journalist etc, any of which often cause even worse
unpleantantness and an even bigger stink than say an incompetent janitor.

Patrick