Holistic Survival Show

468 FBF: Supreme Court Victory Against Gene Patenting with Genae Girard

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Sinopse

Today's Flash Back Friday comes from Episode 169, originally published in September 2013. Genae Girard and her lawsuit against Myriad Genetics may just have altered the course of humanity. Genae was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the U.S. Patent Office and Myriad Genetics, who had been allowed to patent human genes that were associated with breast and ovarian cancer, then monopolize the testing procedure. Genae was in her early 30's and diagnosed with having a gene (BRCA) that leads to cancer. When she asked for a 2nd opinion, she was told that not only was Myriad the only company that could do the test, but even they would not retest her. Incredibly, this was allowed to go on with the blessing of the U.S. Government. In fact many other companies had patents pending for all different kinds of human genes that have been voided due to Genae's lawsuit. The Unanimous Supreme Court decision in June of 2013 said, among other things, that it is unconstitutional to patent anything that exists in nature. The