Rachel,
I have not yet gotten a letter from the IBLCE telling me that I am in
violation of tenet 25.  And one would think I would be the first on the list of
violators.  But only because at the moment the current members of the IBLCE have
decided to believe that the purpose of this tenet was not about protecting
patents on human milk components.  You wrote, "For now , the only thing we have to
go by is the IBLCE's own repeated assurances that the purpose of tenet 25 is
NOT to protect the notion of patenting genetically engineered components of
human milk by for profit entities."  Is that exactly what they said??  Because
that statement has some serious loopholes.  First, there are a number of patents
on human milk components--the real thing (Nemours Foundation owns one of
those--as does John Hopkins, Baylor College of Medicine,etc).  Second, and again
it isn't just profit entities that are patenting--non-profits, universities,
the US government.  So I am hoping that this is your interpretation of what the
IBLCE has been stating.

What will happen in the future as new members join the IBLCE, will they
interpret Tenet 25 in the same manner? If one Tenet will only be partially
enforced, what about the other tenets, such as the WHO Code?  Will violations in these
areas be subject to partial enforcement?

I am sure that some people feel that I am being repetitive and I don't like
being a broken record.  But its darn aggravating to have seen this coming down
the road, given due warnings, and mostly been ignored or rebuffed.  So what
can I say?  There is another company using human milk components to sell
products.  It's not news to me and not news to alot of other people, some who are in
the breastfeeding community.  Hurray for ingenuity and human milk research.
But its too bad that in order to have these products these companies are going
to have to discredit the competition (breastfeeding).  It's the brave new
world. Step by step we are moving into a very artificial world controlled by
corporate interests.  Silence is acceptance.  I appreciate that you, Rachel, (as
well as others on this list) continue to speak out against this kind of
patenting.
Valerie W. McClain, breastfeeding advocate

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