The question was asked if it were possible to patent human body parts.

Patent issues are broken down into two parts -- intellectual property, such as ideas or artistic endeavors, and physical inventions.  Obviously a person
cannot "invent" breastmilk, but a person can use research and intellect to identifyu the properties of human milk and to modify them, thus creating a
patentable *new* product.

Newsweek, a US magazine, recently published an article that provided an overview of how US patent law relates to this issue.  As I understood it, the
intellectual property issue applies to the techniques of uncovering the basic building blocks of life.  Because the US operates as a free market, and
huge sums of money fund the research, the investors expect to reap financial benefits from this work for a certain amount of time as protected by law.
Eventually, of course, the patent expires. With genetically modified foods, the Human Genome Project, AIDS research, and other technologies that happen
at the cellular/genetic level, this is rapidly becoming a hot issue. Some information is actually several years old now, but back then, who knew how
relevant it would be to us today?

Here are a couple of links regarding that subject:

http://www.fplc.edu/risk/vol7/summer/cunningh.htm

http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/judiciary/hju66043.000/hju66043_0.HTM

http://www.gene.ch/gentech/1998/May-Jul/msg00034.html

http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/SUA09/est297.html

Debbie McCallister
Louisville, KY

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