The Real Question

April 17, 2006

The Magazine section of the New York Times has an interesting article on human tissue samples and patenting. It’s a long article, but worth your time to read. Patenting is going to be an increasingly thorny issue in the biotech centry.

Long story short, scientists, universities, biotech companies, etc. obtain patents based on tissues and blood samples from specific patients. Access to processes is restricted. Profits flow. Lawsuits ensue. The article identifies a number of reasons why this situation is not optimal and covers a few suggestions for moving forward.

In the middle of the article, the author attempts to distill the central question:

In the end, the question isn’t whether people have the ability to control their tissues; it is how much science should be obligated (ethically and legally) to put them in the position to do so.

Interesting. As I read the article, I got the impression that the central issue is money. At some point, someone obtains a patent and uses it for financial gain by restricting access to the process and it ends up in court. Sometimes the suit involves a cut of the profits and sometimes it is a demand for freer access to the patented process. It seems to me, however, the real question, never mentioned in the article, is how do we—researchers, patients, lawyers, ethicists—best care for one another? Until we start trying to answer that question, I fear answers to questions of patenting will remain beyond our grasp.