Argument Preview: The Right to Study Genes : SCOTUSblog
Argument preview: The right to study genes
At 10 a.m. next Monday, the Supreme Court will hold a sixty-five-minute oral argument on the control, through patent ownership, of research studies on human genes taken out of the body. Arguing against such patents in the case of Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics (docket 12-398) will be Christopher A. Hansen of New York, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, with twenty-five minutes of time. Following, with ten minutes of time, will be Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., representing the U.S. government as amicus, supporting neither side fully. Representing Myriad, with thirty minutes of time, will be Gregory A. Castanias of the Washington, D.C., office of the Jones Day law firm.
Background
The human body can be defined by its genetic code — the array, unique to each person, of the genes or basic fragments of DNA that determine the physical characteristics of that person. A person gets genes from each parent, so they are the basic markers of heredity. It has been estimated that a human being has as many as 25,000 genes. They create the proteins that do the work of the body.
Anyone who watches a crime lab drama on television has some, probably incomplete, familiarity with using DNA samples to help solve crimes by potentially identifying the suspect. The Supreme Court has become legally familiar with DNA sampling through several criminal cases, including one this Term on taking DNA samples from arrested suspects, perhaps to solve some “cold case.”
But now the Court is confronting a more basic legal issue about the science of human genetic study: can one get a patent to gain the exclusive right to do research on specific genes that have been taken out of the body?
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