Ownership of Human Genes

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Ownership of Human Genes

With the advent of the Human Genome Project, a Pandora's box of ethical, legal, economic, and social issues was irrevocably released. The project, which aims to map the entire human genome by the year 2005, is an enormous international undertaking (7). At the onset, many realized that redundancy and its extraordinary cost could be minimized through international collaboration. With a $3 billion allocation to the DOE (Department of Energy) and NIH (National Institute of Health) towards this project, a database of sequences and gene identifications was established and research poured in from countries around the world such as France, Britain, Switzerland, and Japan.

Intellectual Property Rights

The extraordinary degree and range of possible medical advances that will come from this database immediately raised questions of intellectual property rights. Every newly sequenced segment of DNA holds a possible clue to a treatment for cancer or heart disease. These benefits to humanity and the associated economic gains to suppliers provide more than enough incentive for researchers to consider protection of their discoveries.

In determining patentability, the U.S. Patent Office evaluates applications by three criterion: novelty, utility, and unobviousness to peers in that field. DNA sequences fall into the "Plant Patent" category of patents, which expire years after application (4).

An important distinction must be made between patenting a human function and gaining ownership of another person. For instance, once a gene is isolated and patented for blond hair, the owner of the patent does not "own" a part of each blond person's genome. Instead, they have the right to prohibit others from develop...

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8.) Curien, Hubert. "The Human Genome Project and Patents" Science v.254 (Dec. 20 '91). Washington D.C., American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1991. 1710+.

9.) Eckhardt, Robert B. "Foxy Logic On Gene Pursuit." Nature v.382 (Aug. 29 '96). London, MacMillan (Journals) Ltd., 1996. 750.

10.) "Patent Nonsense?" New Scientist v.133 (Mar. 14 '92). England, IPC Magazines Ltd., 1992. 7.

11.) Roberts, Leslie. "OSTP to Wade Into Gene Patent Quagmire." Science v.254 (Nov. 22 '91). Washington D.C., American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1991. 1104- 5.

12.) Roberts, Leslie. "Who Owns the Human Genome?" Science v.237 (July 24 '87). Washington D.C., American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1987. 358-361.

13.) "Free Trade in Human Sequence Data?" Nature v.354 (Nov. 21 '91). London, MacMillan (Journals) Ltd., 1991. 171-2.

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