Assignment task: Dr. ABC is a scientist honored for work related to the human genome project. Among his pioneering efforts concern stem cell research for the cure of Alzheimer's disease. Under corporate sponsorship, he helped develop a microbe that ate and digested oil spills in the sea.
Now he leads a college team for cancer research in MSS State. The team has experimented on a mouse whose body cells replicates and bear cancerous tumor. Called "'oncomouse', it is a life-form useful for medical research and it is a novel creation. Its body cells do not naturally occur in nature but are the product of man's intellect, industry and ingenuity. However, there is a doubt whether local property laws and ethics would allow rights of exclusive ownership on any life-form. Dr. ABC needs your advice:
1. Whether the reciprocity principle in private international law could be applied in our jurisdiction.
2. Whether there are legal and ethical reasons that could frustrate his claim of exclusive ownership over the life- form called "oncomouse" in Manila? What will be your advice to him?