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36 Brandeis J. Fam. L. 267 (1997-1998)
Patenting of Human DNA Sequences - Implications for Prenatal Genetic Testing

handle is hein.journals/branlaj36 and id is 275 raw text is: PATENTING OF HUMAN DNA SEQUENCES-IMPLICATIONS FOR PRENATAL GENETIC TESTING* 1. INTRODUCTION The discovery of the double-helical structure of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule in the 1950's represented the beginning of the modem science of human genetics.' Geneticists have since discovered how DNA encodes the human gene with all the characteristic traits that define every individual. In 1989, Congress began the three-billion-dollar Human Genome Project to map and sequence each of the approximately 50,000 to 100,000 genes contained in each human cell.' The Project seeks to develop genetic tests and treatments for those diseases known to have a genetic basis.3 The rapid developments in genetic research produced by the Human Genome Project have rekindled a controversy that first erupted in 1980 concerning the patenting of products of nature. In Diamond v. Chakrabarty,4 the Supreme Court held a living, genetically-altered organism is patentable.5 Since this decision, private parties have obtained patents on human DNA sequences.6 The issuing of such patents has had a profound economic and ethical impact on genetic research itself. The impacts on genetic research reverberate perhaps most significantly through the field of prenatal genetic testing. Currently, prenatal genetic testing can detect approximately six hundred of the three thousand to four thousand known genetic defects.7 As a result * Finalist, Best Note Award, 1996-97. See PHILIP KITCHER, THE LIVES TO COME: THE GENETIC REVOLUTION AND HUMAN POSSIBILITEs 29 (1996). 2 See Lori B. Andrews, Torts and the Double Helix: Malpractice Liability for Failure to Warn of Genetic Risks, 29 HOUs. L. REV. 149, 150 (1992). 3Id. 4 447 U.S. 303 (1980). 3 Id. at 309-10. 6 See Rebecca S. Eisenberg, Patenting the Human Genome, 39 EMORY L.J. 721, 721 (1990). ' See Kimberly Nobles, Birthright or Life Sentence: Controlling the Threat of Genetic