In response to Naomi's question:

"Is it reasonable to expect her to investigate where to send her milk, how to
pack it to get there and the policies of each milk on using milk for
research--in addition to undergoing whatever testing is necessary so that the milk
bank can take her gift."

I am not suggesting a mother initiate an investigation.  I think it is
reasonable to expect a mom to make a phone call to a milk bank to get the details
and to add one or two more questions about how her milk will be used.

Katie writes, "what questions would you ask?"
There is one simple question that I think mothers might consider asking, "if"
they are concerned about how their milk donation would be used.  That
question would be whether the donor can request that her milk only be used to feed
babies and not used in research.  When people donate money, they often set the
conditions on how that money is to be spent. Thus, it would seem to me that
this question/request regarding donated milk should be honored or considered.  A
satisfactory answer would be one which a milk bank states that they would
honor the donor's request.  I think one might want to get this answer in writing.

The only way that I see that people can put the brakes on this widespread
commercialism of human milk is to deny the researchers and companies access to
human milk.  I think many of us support milk banking because we know what a
life-giving gift this is for infants.  That support should continue but I think
there are many of us who don't want to see this "gift of life" going to Nestle
or Mead Johnson or some pharm company.

Katie asks, "Are these patents by the USDH just being used to make money or
being used to help people get well?"

Patents are about making MONEY from owning a MONOPOLY on an invention.  The
US Department of Health is not giving their patents away.  You might want to
read about the patents the US government holds on ddl (a hiv/aids drug).  The US
government became involved in a legal battle with Bristol-Myers Squibb over
this patent.  The government give this company (which is the parent company of
Mead Johnson) permission to sell this drug in exchange for sharing the
profits.  It became a legal battle, when the US accused this company of withholding
some of its profits from the US government (9.1 million dollars). see article
entitled, "US pursues AIDS-drug profit abroad."
http://www.hivworkshop.com/april5.htm

The US Department of Health also has patents on hiv/aids testing kits.  Thus
one might consider that the US government has an investment in the diagnosis
of hiv/aids and its treatments.  Consider that it was Margaret Heckler,
Secretary of the Department of Health (a politically appointed office) in the 80's ,
who announced that Gallo, a government researcher, had discovered the organism
that caused AIDS.  Gallo (as inventor along with other researchers) and the
Department of Health (as the assignee) have a variety of patents together--many
on hiv testing kits but also drugs.  Never before had scientific discovery
been announced prior to peer review.  But this was the situation with hiv/aids.
One might wonder whether patenting of the test kits and the drugs has created
a blind eye regarding the enormous discrepancies in hiv/aids theory,
particularly in regard to mother to child transmission.  Think about it, for every
test kit used, the government makes a profit. Why should the Department of Health
ever consider that they might have invested in the wrong researcher and the
wrong theory?

The US Government owns a recombinant human lactoferrin patent.  I don't know
whether that patent is particularly profitable at this time.  They are
certainly supportive of the lactoferrin industry (giving grants and loans to
Agennix).  I have shown Lactnetters a document in which the US government stated that i
t is possible to make an infant formula better than human milk.  The US
Government has its own investments in products that compete or help destroy
breastfeeding.  They share in profits with companies like Bristol Myers Squibb.
Should we really expect support of breastfeeding from this corporate giant, called
ironically the US Department of Health?
Valerie W. McClain, breastfeeding advocate

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html