Mardrey wrote, " I may be wrong and Valerie might clarify, but I'm assuming
the patents aren't on the final product itself, but on the process that
produces it?"

I will clarify that statement for you.  But first I would like to remind
people that the information/research I am posting while unpublished is copyright
protected.  In fact, I consider all my posts to Lactnet and AnotherLook
copyright protected.  I am getting with the program of the New Age where information
is a commodity to be bought and sold.  Silly old me--I was stuck in the stone
age of believing in sharing information for the benefit of all. Of course, all
I need is an enforcer (copyright lawyer) and I am in the business of
protecting my property.

The patents I have seen in my research are mostly on genetically engineering
the human milk component--"methods" of genetically engineering.  But there are
some patents that I believe are a cause for deep concern.  They seem to be
about ownership of the human milk component and its abilities (one is its
ability to activate DNA, several on its ability to inactivate hiv).

I spoke with Liz Baldwin back in 2000 in regard to one of those patents.  I
was very disappointed in that conversation with Liz because she wouldn't give
me an answer to my question about this particular patent.  Patenting is a very
complex area and she felt that she did not have the expertise in that area to
offer me an answer.  It was the last conversation I had with Liz before she
got so ill and died.  I miss her straight-forward questions and answers and her
willingness to answer any call.  She was a treasure, a resource for us all.

The particular patent I was concerned about is one of three patents that the
Green Party in Europe called the "Pharm Woman" patents.  The Green Party
stopped the pharm woman patent application at the European Patent Office.  I
believe it was filed in 1987 at the USA patent office and became a patent in 1992
--from Baylor College of Medicine.  Pharm woman is the term used by European
activists to describe the patenting of humans in order to gain monopoly rights to
the production of pharmaceuticals through human female breasts.  There is
supposedly a pharm woman patent in the Australian Patent Office, too.  I have
viewed patents at the Australian Patent Office and have not found it.  All
patents at the Australian Patent Office are copyrighted (unlike the USA) and thus
cannot be reproduced anywhere else without permission.

Mardrey wrote, "I came across an article describing how some cows had been
altered to produce a human milk component in their milk and therfore make it
more like human milk."  Already done--cloned milk is either on the market now or
close to it. (NY Times writer Nicholas Kristoff discusses his visit to the
farm and drinking cloned milk and he didn't sprout 3 heads)  Cloned milk and meat
are in the market place in Japan (since last year)

The human lactoferrin gene has been spliced into embryos of cows, goats,
sheep, mice, etc.  It has also been spliced into rice, tobacco, etc.  This is
called transgenics.  Human lactoferrin can also be made through cultures in yeast
or bacteria--genetically engineered by fermentation processes.  Agennix--a
company that has major roots within Baylor College of Medicine-makes recombinant
human lactoferrin through this process.  It will be used as an antibiotic, for
cancer treatments, for diabetic ulcers, etc.  I believe alot of their
research was funded by the US government. This product is the direct result of
research on human milk, particularly the component lactoferrin.  Note that the pharm
woman patent is a Baylor college of medicine patent and this biotech company
has its roots in Baylor-college president is on the BOD of this company.   I
had a scientific advisor from Greenpeace confirm with me that the Baylor patent
was in all probability one of the three pharm woman patents that the Green
Party had protested about in Europe.

Valerie W. McClain, breastfeeding advocate, copy-righted, patent-pending
human bean :)

PS  Most women don't realize that they carry on their person a pharmaceutical
factory.  Best looking pharmaceutical factories in the world.

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