ABSTRACT
There is yet another area of fundamental existential relevance that functions on grounds of common property, whose integrity is nowadays seriously endangered. "Just as language, agricultural and farming methods and skills of any kind, are the cultural basis of any society, without which any society would not survive, so genes are the building blocks of biological life". Enclosure is taking the form of especially, but not exclusively, large corporation's striving to turn knowledge and genes into private property under the banner of Intellectual Property Rights. Even more radical transformation has taken place in the field of life sciences. The seminal Chakrabarty ruling, authorizing General Electric to patent a genetically modified microorganism that could eat up oil slicks, ultimately led to the patentability of living matter. The commons currently under discussion also include women's ability to breastfeed their children and the shared knowledge communicated across generations and within communities on child-rearing techniques.
