

How 23andMe saved my wife - ceteri
http://jonsteinberg.tumblr.com/post/1298758017/how-23andme-saved-my-wife

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klync
The tests for BRCA1 and BRCA2 have been around for decades. Here in Evil
Socialist Canada, our governments have been paying the patent holders for this
genetic test $200 a pop and providing genetic screening to our citizens for
free for at least 10 years.

I forget the name of the company holding the patent at the moment. But, a
bitter battle was fought around the world against these patents. Eventually it
was the US's views that were upheld at WIPO, protecting the company who made
their "discovery" on the backs of hundreds of millions of dollars in public
R&D funding, including the Human Genome Project.

23 and Me didn't save anyone's life. The US Congress muscled through a patent
regime that prevented anyone except private companies like 23 and Me from
being able to provide this basic health procedure to the masses of American
citizens.

You can go and celebrate this company because this guy and his wife had the
money to afford to pay for this test. I see it as a loss for all the Americans
who can't afford to pay. And therefore a loss to American society as a whole.

