Supreme Court Takes Up Question of Gene Research - NYTimes.com - 0 views
www.nytimes.com/...-patents-in-gene-research.html
genetics patents DNA ethics nytimes science supreme court
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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court announced on Friday that it would decide whether human genes may be patented.
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The patents were challenged by scientists and doctors who said that their research and ability to help patients had been frustrated.
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ained the right to exclude the rest of the scientific community from examining the naturally occurring genes of every person in the United States,
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prevent patients from examining their own genetic information” and “made it impossible to obtain second opinions.”
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he legal question for the justices is whether isolated genes are “products of nature” that may not be patented or “human-made inventions” eligible for patent protection.
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“The isolated DNA molecules before us are not found in nature,” wrote Judge Alan D. Lourie, who was in the majority. “They are obtained in the laboratory and are man-made, the product of human ingenuity.”