Patenting you own DNA?, page 1

After reading through some of the DNA related threads I wondered just how it could be possible to legally protect your own DNA from misuse by the authorities.

As biotech corporations are racing to patent specific genome sequences that they may later develop a lucrative pharamceutical cure for, such as Alzheimer's Disease, could it be possible for an individual to patent their own entire and wholly unique genome and thereby be entitled to licence their sequence for royalty payments?

Poet attempts the ultimate in self-invention - patenting her own genes

A poet and casino waitress from Bristol, angered at the mass patenting of human genes by science and big business, is trying to become the first person to patent herself.

Donna MacLean's application has been given a number - GB0000180.0 - by the patent office. In a letter, officials told Ms MacLean that they would check the legality and originality of the application if she sent them a £130 fee.

To patent an invention, the inventor has to prove it is novel and useful. In her application, Ms MacLean claimed she is both.

"It has taken 30 years of hard labour for me to discover and invent myself, and now I wish to protect my invention from unauthorised exploitation, genetic or otherwise," she wrote.

"I am new: I have led a private existence and I have not made the invention of myself public. I am not obvious."

Ms MacLean said she had many industrial applications. "For example, my genes can be used in medical research to extremely profitable ends," she wrote. "I therefore wish to have sole control of my own genetic material."

One of the requirements of a patent application would be to define a 'technological application'...perhaps this could be defined as 'fertilizer' upon death and burial?

There has to be a way to legally exploit a patent-law loophole to allow we, the people, to take back the power to decide who can hold our unique DNA information and how it may be used

Any thoughts?