Rights are generally defined as justified claims for the protection of general interests. In this sense, human beings have been described as having rights to property, "to life, liberty, and the pursuit happiness" (United States Declaration of Independence, 1776), as "free and equal in rights" (Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, 1789), and as having rights "to share in scientific advancement and its benefits" (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948). More recently civil rights or liberties to freedom of speech and assembly have been complemented by proposals for social, economic, and welfare rights to minimum levels of shelter, food, and medical care. What was initially a quite limited relation of rights to science and technology, insofar as their advancement rested on the protection of intellectual property rights, has become increasingly a question of consumer rights to certain levels of material benefit and safety related especially to technology...