Genetic testing for sale : implications of commercial BRCA testing in Canada

Abstract

The patenting and commercialization of human genetic material raises a host of complex social, ethical, and policy issues, such as the potential for discrimination or stigmatization in access to health care services or employment, the exploitation of minority or indigenous communities in gene prospecting, and the implications for ongoing biomedical research and access to health care services. The primary objective of this chapter is to explore the history and context of one instance of gene patenting – the race to discover and commercialize the two genes (BRCA1 and BRCA2) associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer – and thus the chapter will only point towards some of the many complex social and ethical issues. A description of how Myriad Genetics came to patent the BRCA genes and establish control of genetic susceptibility testing in the U.S. will, for example, support a better understanding of why Myriad is having such difficulty exerting similar control in Canada and Europe. This understanding provides the necessary groundwork for developing a comprehensive social, ethical and policy analysis of the implications of gene patenting and commercial genetic testing. Ch. 2 Case History 