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2 Hous. J. Health L. & Pol'y 65 (2002)
The Gene Patent Dilemma: Balancing Commerical Incentives with Health Needs

handle is hein.journals/hhpol2 and id is 71 raw text is: 2 Hous. J. HEALTH L. & PoL'Y 65-106 65 Copyright © 2002 Lori B. Andrews, Houston Journal of Health Law & Policy ISSN 1534-7907 THE GENE PATENT DILEMMA: BALANCING COMMERCIAL INCENTIVES WITH HEALTH NEEDS Lori B. Andrews, J.D.* INTRODUCTION On January 3, 2000, Donna Rawlinson MacLean filed applica- tion GB000180.0 in the British Patent Office. The patent application entitled Myself' was MacLean's attempt to patent her own genetic sequence.' It has taken 30 years of hard labor for me to discover and invent myself, and now I wish to protect my invention from unauthorized exploitation, genetic or otherwise, explained MacLean.2 Patent office officials were befuddled as to why she would want to patent her own genes. It is not really worth patenting something unless you make a lot of money from it, noted Brian Caswell of the British patent office.3 But MacLean, a poet, was inter- ested in making a point, not in making profits. She was protesting the granting of gene patents to companies, which seemingly al- lowed them to own parts of people.4 * Lori Andrews is a Distinguished Professor, Chicago-Kent College of Law. She wrote this article while she was a Visiting Professor of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University. The research for this article was supported in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, program on ethical, legal and social implications of genetics, #DEFG0201ER63168. 'Of Her Own Making, N.Y. Tnsms, March 12, 2000, at A4 Raurans; see also Patent, available at http://blather.newdream.net/p/patent.html. 2Id. 3 Woman Tries to Patent Self, REuTrs, Feb. 29, 2000 [hereinafter Reuters, Sel], available at http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/living/dailynews/selfpatentOO0229.html.

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