In 1995, the parties to the CBD agreed to exclude human genetic resources from its scope “The Conference of the parties reaffirms that human genetic resources are not included in the framework of the Convention” (CBD COP Decision II/11). Hence, I shall concentrate on benefit sharing after obtaining access. I take it for granted that access to a genetic resource has been obtained by respecting legal and ethical guidelines. Please note “advantages/profits” was chosen deliberately to capture the notion that benefit sharing relates to monetary and non‐monetary benefits. That was easy enough, although it makes benefit sharing sound like the leisure pursuit of a Sunday afternoon philanthropist. The straightforward linguistic definition for benefit sharing could therefore be that benefit sharing is the action of giving a portion of advantages/profits to others. For instance, Janina shared the pie with Jonas. “To share” means to give a portion of something to another. For example, Jonas enjoys the benefits of being a sports club member. According to the OED, “benefit” delineates an advantage or a profit gained from something. 1 And the very recent International encyclopaedia of intellectual property treaties has no entry on benefit sharing either. Likewise, the largest and most up‐to‐date bioethics encyclopaedia is empty between “beneficence” and “bias in research”. Yet, benefit sharing has not made an entrance in the OED. One of the advantages of moving from mainland Europe to the Anglo‐American world is that the Oxford English dictionary (OED) is an accepted tool for philosophical analysis.
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