American Civil Liberties Union : Gene Patents

The Technology & Liberty Project monitors the interplay between cutting-edge technology and civil liberties, actively promoting responsible uses of technology that enhance privacy and freedom, while opposing those that undermine our freedoms and move us closer to a surveillance society.

Gene Patents

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted tens of thousands of patents on human genetic sequences. While the whole purpose of the patent system is to encourage innovation, increasingly human gene patents appear to be actually inhibiting biomedical research and interfering with patient care. For example, the Utah-based company Myriad Genetics has patented two genetic mutations -- BRCA1 and BRCA2 -- that have been associated with an increased risk of certain forms of breast cancer. The high licensing and diagnostic testing fees charged by Myriad have forced some researchers to discontinue research on breast cancer and have prevented women from having access to screening for these breast cancer genes. In addition to inhibiting freedom of research, patents on human genes raise troubling questions about the right of patients to access information about themselves, women and minority rights, and whether parts of human beings should be patentable at all. The ACLU is exploring this and other areas of patent law and the implications for civil liberties.

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