Letters
GENE PIRACY
Your article on the tracking down of scientifically useful and patentable substances, including medicinal plants [Nov. 30], raised several issues that are important for the future of biodiversity and its exploitation. It is true that a number of secondary metabolites of plants are used therapeutically, but most derive from plants that grow outside rain forests in developed nations. The chance to find new and useful compounds in rain forests is very small. Unfounded hopes are raised if one compares the search for new compounds with mining for gold. Also, many therapeutic agents developed in rich countries have been brought to developing nations and are helping fight infection and disease. This important topic is complex, and it does not help to publish a one-sided view.
MICHAEL WINK
Institute for Pharmaceutical Biology
University of Heidelberg
Heidelberg You noted that some western countries "want to exempt plants and animals from being covered by international property rights," and stated that the 1992 Convention on Biodiversity is the closest we've come to tackling the dispute. But you said "there is no consensus." This is misleading. About 170 countries have ratified the convention, and it is in force. As you pointed out, the U.S. is not one of those that signed it, but there is certainly consensus in the developing world that the time has come to put some order and regulation in the age-old practice of richer states' exploiting the resources of poorer countries. The convention seeks to ensure that the developing countries get a fair deal. I predict that the confrontation you referred to between industrialized countries and resource-rich emerging nations will be long and heated.
JAN GLAZEWSKI
Environmental Law Unit
University of Cape Town
Rondebosch, South Africa You have drawn much-needed attention to an area that has been almost completely overlooked. But what about the issue of patenting something that has been in use for years? An invention can be patented, but can genes? There's no point patenting something that already exists and is used everywhere. Even if big companies profit from long-secret tribal medicines, the original practitioners should have the right to continue producing them freely on their own, especially in clear-cut cases, like that of the energy-giving berry found in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
INDRADEEP DASGUPTA
Calcutta

JUDGMENT FOR DICTATORS
In reaction to the arrest of Chile's former President Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, you published a letter from a reader [Nov. 23] who asked us to imagine what would happen if a South American country tried to put the late Spanish dictator Francisco Franco on trial. If Franco were alive, I would not mind if he were arrested, judged and condemned in a foreign country, be it Chile, the U.S. or Madagascar. Pinochet replaced a legitimate democratic government by the use of the force and then committed torture and genocide. He should face trial. Spain will judge Pinochet for crimes against Spanish citizens.
LUIS CRESPO
Barcelona I don't understand Pinochet's supporters in Chile. They try to explain them selves with questions like "What if Franco were to be judged outside Spain?" Well, Franco won the Spanish Civil War with the support of Hitler and Mussolini, and it was a pity that after World War II ended, Franco did not stand trial at Nuremberg. Liberty and human rights are not linked to conservative or socialist ideologies. How can anyone who lost a family member to Pinochet's regime support the man who ordered murders?
JOSE CARLOS GARCIA
Madrid In Chile there are roughly 11 million people who had to live under Pinochet's iron fist for 17 years. His secret police killed thousands. Many more had to flee into exile. But, we lived in an orderly country. We developed one of Latin America's strongest economies. The crime rate was low. There was work. Sometimes you could even speak your mind openly. And so we compromised. We knew it was better than what we had experienced under President Salvador Allende Gossens and his experiment to turn us into another Cuba. Yes, Pinochet led a government that was hard on its enemies, but it turned Chile into a country that you were proud to be a citizen of.
SERGIO LOPEZ PUGH
Santiago

A STARR APPEARANCE
In his presentation before the House Judiciary Committee [Nov. 30], independent counsel Kenneth Starr did not lose, as you said. He won! And his was a greater victory than may be implied by the standing ovation he received from Republicans. Your report was self-serving and condescending. Starr brought to the hearing uprightness and integrity. Not too long ago, these virtues were common in our society. Today the masses regard them as a joke.
JACK W. CARTER
Elizabeth, Colo.