Science fiction or science fact?

According to the news in the last few days, a patent has been filed for the basic genes to create life - not genetic engineering, the tinkering of existing life forms by adding/subtracting/changing genes, but genetic synthesis, designing and creating an organism from scratch.

So here as I'm reading bioethicists debating the morality of creating life through what we know of genomics, there's a patent being filed for that very thing.

As I sit here in my office, far removed from biotechnology hubs, I wonder what the effect of this patent application will be - will it get the public talking about genetics, sparking a debate and various regulatory agencies' efforts to produce guidelines for future research? Or will this news story slip back down into oblivion after this brief blip across the radar screen, opening the possibility that a single company will own the patent to life?

Meanwhile, James Watson - the discoverer of the DNA helix - has had his entire genome mapped.

Certainly the million dollar price tag won't have people popping down to the local gene bank to check out a new love interest, as they did in Gattaca, but it's certainly an interesting development arising out of the Human Genome Project.

It looks like science fiction is becoming science fact right now. And it seem to me there's far too little discussion by human beings in the aggregate about how this might affect our lives and our ownership of our own genetic maps.