I am pleased to announce that Gideon Schor, Vern Noviel, and I filed an amicus brief on behalf of Dr. Eric S. Lander in a pending Supreme Court case that will address whether human genes are patentable. The case is Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, No. 12-398 and will be argued April 15, 2013. Lander is a leading genomics researcher and…
About 10 days ago, the New York Times had two fascinating stories about reproduction (on back-to-back days) that I wanted to highlight and comment on. I discussed the first one here. In this post, I will take about the second story about “co-parenting” (though that term has a separate set of meanings related to divorce)…
By Michelle Meyer As most readers are probably aware, the past few years have seen considerable media and clinical interest in chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive, neurodegenerative condition linked to, and thought to result from, concussions, blasts, and other forms of brain injury (including, importantly, repeated but milder sub-concussion-level injuries) that can lead to…
By Adriana Lee Benedict In a couple days, petitioners in AMP v. USPTO will be filing their brief on the merits following the Supreme Court’s grant of certiorari in late November. For many, the Supreme Court’s ruling in this case will provide a long-awaited answer to the question of whether or not isolated DNA is…
By Yu-Chi Lyra Kuo Last month, John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka were jointly awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Medicine for their research on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). iPSCs are capturing the public imagination as embryonic stem cells did fifteen years ago, but without the controversy surrounding the destruction of embryos: iPSCs can be…
Last week, I sat on a panel at the Mid-Atlantic Law and Society Association, with my wonderful colleagues Kim Mutcherson, Gaia Bernstein, Rene Almeling, and Cynthia Daniels on sperm donor anonymity. [NB: as in most of my work I will use the term “donor” because it is used in common parlance while acknowledging that “seller”…
Yesterday, President Obama’s Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues released its fifth report: Privacy and Progress in Whole Genome Sequencing. I haven’t had a chance to digest it yet, but for now, just wanted to call it to everyone’s attention. The gist seems to be privacy, privacy, privacy. Here are the major recommendations, straight from…
By Cansu Canca A recent New York Times article drew attention to an issue with increasing importance as technology develops. Gene samples collected under conditions of anonymity reveal more and more information that may be of crucial importance for the subjects or their relatives. Researchers feel a moral obligation to disclose these important findings, which…
Al Roth has linked to an ongoing debate as to whether paying for leftover human tissue used in research should be repugnant, forbidden, allowed, or mandated. Check it out here. Which side do you fall on?
