Comparison: Patenting Life by Michael Crichton and Decoding the Use of Gene Patents by John Calfee

In “Patenting Life,” Michael Crichton argues that the government is mishandling the patenting office with the awarding of patents for human genes. Gene patenting is blocking the advancement of modern medicine and could be costing many patients their lives. The hold on research results in the discovery of fewer cures for modern diseases.

The United States Patent Office awards patents to companies that discover cures, tests, and medical operations for human genes. These patents are in use to compensate these companies for their discovery and encourage them to advance their research and create more medical advancements. Canavan disease is a disorder children inherit that begins to show symptoms at three months; they cannot crawl or walk and they suffer seizures, which result in paralysis and death by adolescence. Parents of these children engage researchers to help create an identification test for Canavan disease by donating tissue and funds. In 1993, the gene receives identification and the families receive a commitment from a New York hospital to offer the test for no cost to patients, but the researcher's employer, Miami Children's Hospital Research Institute, patents the gene and refuses to allow any insurance company to offer the test without paying the institute a royalty. Since the parents believe that gene patenting should not exist the absence of their name on the patent gives them no control over the outcome. The idea of personal medication profiling is more in doubt than ever due to the awarding of gene patents to large companies.

In this essay Crichton gives many examples of facts and real life situations in which gene patenting has negative effects on the medical population. Crichton uses tone and word choice to enfor...

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...ee. The examples and facts he gives are substantially better than those given by Michael Crichton's “Patenting Life”. Crichton expresses his views in the essay to such an extent that he is visibly on the side of anti-gene patenting throughout the entire essay. This type of writing is not correct because he is trying to write an informative argument. Calfee does not express his view in the essay, but instead, he helps the audience understand view points on both sides.

Works Cited

Crichton, Michael. “Patenting life.” Perspectives on Contemporary Issues: Readings across the Discipline. 7th ed. Ed. Katherine Anne Ackley. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage, 2015. 441-442. Print.

Calfee, John. “Decoding the Use of Gene Patents.” Perspectives on Contemporary Issues: Readings across the Discipline. 7th ed. Ed. Katherine Anne Ackley. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage, 2015. 443-444. Print.