Beyond Pig Parts

We were all stabbing our chopsticks at the beautifully arranged dishes on the lazy Susan in the middle of the restaurant table. Thin purple slices of onion created scallops around the edge of one platter, carrot peels were curled into flowers on another. I was stabbing my chopsticks into the tasty brown stuff on top of the sweet potato dish, thinking it consisted mostly of mushroom, only to discover that this, too, was pig parts. Stomach parts. But none of the body parts on the table before me were patented, as far as I knew.

Sitting next to me was “George,” a molecular biologist I’d heard about but had never met. Not only is George a biologist, but also a lawyer and a CPA. George, I thought, might have opinions about patents and body parts. Indeed he did. 

In bygone years I’d had some of my science students read and discuss articles about gene patenting and informed consent—in fact, we had engaged in one such discussion after reading Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a book about the woman whose cancer cells ended up creating the oldest and most widely used cell line, now known around the world by the name of HeLa (letters from her first and last name). I once rode on a train in Switzerland, where a Bosnian saw the book in my hand. He did not know who Henrietta Lacks was and knew nothing about her contribution to the development of the Pap Smear test for the screening of cervical cancer, but he knew all about HeLa cells. Molecular biologists all around the world use this cell line. But who owns those cells? Anybody?

Who owns your cells? And who owns your genes? You?

You might be surprised who holds the patents on some of your body parts—and what those patents have to do with who controls research, drugs, and the pharmaceutical industry. You might be surprised how much university administrators in the US celebrate the awarding of patents (You published how many articles? Got how many grants? And how many patents?). Didn’t you know it is a good thing to count among your prizes lots of patents on body parts?

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George and I were seated at this table along with Clay’s son Daniel, visiting from San Francisco, and half a dozen other people, none of whom probably care too much about body parts, HeLa cells, or gene patenting. But George cares. He’s petitioned the UN to set standards that might constrain some of this patenting. He’s published thirty some scholarly articles just about this, mostly in Chinese journals because he fears his English isn’t good enough to reach the most prestigious science journals that now happen to be published in English.

He and many scientists in other parts of the world question not only the ethics of gene patenting (and patenting of other science-related discoveries), but also the implications for research. Who controls the cost of certain body parts (and non-living parts)? Who controls access to these things? How do pharmaceutical companies relate to this? And biotech companies? How does this affect the availability and cost of certain drugs for patients? Food for anyone?

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Many of these things I’d thought about a little bit before, but I’d never quite thought about them from George’s perspective. Because we were celebrating Daniel’s arrival in China, George and I didn’t throw ourselves into a conversation that is waiting to be had, but I can already see more layers to the complexity of the issue—and more layers to the role of the English language as a carrier of culture and the dominant culture’s values. That, of course, is where my work comes into the story.

Not only are the patents gatekeepers, so is the language—for good or for bad.

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