Copyfascism Watch

From The Sydney Morning Herald:

Babies with a severe form of epilepsy risk having their diagnosis delayed and their treatment compromised because of a company's patent on a key gene.

It is the first evidence that private intellectual property rights over human DNA are adversely affecting medical care.

Deepak Gill, head of neurology at the Children's Hospital at Westmead, said he would test at least 50 per cent more infants for the SCN1A gene - which would diagnose the disabling Dravet syndrome - if the hospital could conduct the test in-house.

But rights to the gene are controlled by the Melbourne-based Genetic Technologies, which has already threatened to stop public hospitals testing for breast cancer gene mutations, and the hospital will not risk a similar problem.

Specialists are sending blood samples to Scotland, and only babies whose seizure patterns closely resemble Dravet syndrome are tested. This means children with slightly different symptoms may be treated with the wrong medicines for months, potentially retarding their development.

"It's frustrating that we can't get the test done readily," Dr Gill said. "If we could include it as part of the work-up, we could identify them early."

LINK TO THE NEWS ARTICLE >>

Government-mandated monopolies abridge many rights, whether it be our private property rights, our free speech rights, and others. However, this case is particularly odious, for the government has granted monopoly to a corporation on key genetic code that exists in some people. And these corporations, utilizing the government's capacity for violent coercion, is enforcing that monopoly and abridging on the very ownership of people's bodies. The Australian government has decided, through its decision to grant private entities patents on genetic code, that Australians only have co-ownership of their bodies.