Gene Patents: Who Owns Your Body?

If you or someone you love has Hepatitis C, Breast Cancer, or Alzheimer’s (to name just three common diseases) you may die not because a cure does not exist or because you don’t have health insurance but because a huge corporation has taken out what is called a “gene patent” on your disease.  They own it.  This means not only does your doctor need that company’s permission to treat you but that he or she may not even know what the treatments are.  Because they’re trade secrets. 

This is not a horror story.  A glance at here and herereveals that:

• Chiron holds the patent on Hepatitis C;
• Myriad Genetics has patented breast cancer; and
• Duke University/Athena Diagnostics hold the patent on Alzheimer’s. 

On February 13, 2007 Michael Crichton reported in the New York Times that a simple test for breast cancer which should cost $1,000 costs $3,000 and that “the owner of… Hepatitis C” (Chiron) is paid millions annually by scientists who simply want to study it.  And it gets worse.

By now one-fifth of the genes in your body are privately owned by some huge corporation.  You quite literally do not own your own body.  And should anything go wrong with that 20 percent of you, you may well need some big corporation’s permission to get any kind of treatment at all. 

And today came the news that a tireless champion against gene patenting, Michael Crichton, lost his battle with cancer.  Michael Crichton’s Next is perhaps the most effective call to arms against the rampant greed of corporations who seek to purchase our lives.  This essay is dedicated to him and to all those who have died needless deaths because some huge corporation wanted yet more money.