Donna Maclean, a poet and casino waitress from Bristol, is trying to become the first person to patent herself. She has made her unique application to the patent office in an attempt to register her anger at the mass patenting of genes by scientists and biotech companies. 'There's a kind of unpleasant, greedy atmosphere around the mapping of the human genome' Ms Maclean told The Guardian newspaper.
To patent an invention, the inventor has to prove it is novel and useful. Ms Maclean claims it has taken her 30 years of hard labour to discover and invent herself, and she now wishes to protect her invention from unauthorised exploitation, genetic or otherwise. 'I have led a private existence and I have not made the invention of myself public. I am not obvious' she added.
John Sulston, head of the UK's Sanger Centre, which is carrying out one third of the publicly-funded Human Genome Project, shares Ms Maclean's sentiments. In an attack on Celera Genomics, the US Company headed by Craig Venter, he said that genes are our birthright and nobody should own them. 'The emerging truth is absolutely extraordinary' Dr Sulston told BBC News Online this week. 'They (Celera) really intend to establish a complete monopoly position on the human genome for a period of at least five years.' He also said that Celera's private human genome database is a 'con job', as it requires the addition of data from publicly-funded institutions like the Sanger Centre. 'It would be hilarious if it wasn't so serious for all of us' he warned.
Sources and References
-
Poet schemes to patent her genes
-
Celera Genomics: a 'con job'