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amralsayed0's Reviews (146)
Absolutely WONDERFUL! Stephen Fry did it again. Enjoyed this book immensely from the first page to the last.
My first Agatha Christie novel and definitely won't be the last.
I'm still amazed that I haven't heard of Henrietta Lacks before now. It just shows how the transparency around these subjects is.
I enjoyed learning about the Lacks family throughout the book but the last chapter (the one that discusses tissue ownership) is downright infuriating, especially the part about gene patenting. I'm strongly believe that as much information as humanly possible should be freely available to all people as long as it doesn't invade personal privacy. Patenting a gene is far from being personal, it falls well within the collective ownership of the entire human race. No one should be allowed to claim monopoly on that!
Mind you this is not patenting a single gene of a single human, which would be fine if consent is given by said human, but this is patenting that gene for the entire human race! It's like taking a vertical slice of every human living and will ever live and claiming you own that. Research and even TESTING on that gene is prohibited except with prohibitively expensive licensing fees.
Imagine not being able to test for mutations on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes (an early indicator for breast cancer) because hospitals everywhere decided that the licensing fee is huge and they're not gonna do it! Early detection of such genes would literally save thouthands if not millions of lives.
The issue raised by this book of tissue and gene ownership is extremely important and I can't fathom how we got to the current state of affairs.
Definitely, a recommended read.
I enjoyed learning about the Lacks family throughout the book but the last chapter (the one that discusses tissue ownership) is downright infuriating, especially the part about gene patenting. I'm strongly believe that as much information as humanly possible should be freely available to all people as long as it doesn't invade personal privacy. Patenting a gene is far from being personal, it falls well within the collective ownership of the entire human race. No one should be allowed to claim monopoly on that!
Mind you this is not patenting a single gene of a single human, which would be fine if consent is given by said human, but this is patenting that gene for the entire human race! It's like taking a vertical slice of every human living and will ever live and claiming you own that. Research and even TESTING on that gene is prohibited except with prohibitively expensive licensing fees.
Imagine not being able to test for mutations on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes (an early indicator for breast cancer) because hospitals everywhere decided that the licensing fee is huge and they're not gonna do it! Early detection of such genes would literally save thouthands if not millions of lives.
The issue raised by this book of tissue and gene ownership is extremely important and I can't fathom how we got to the current state of affairs.
Definitely, a recommended read.
