US company secures patent on designer babies

American genetic testing company 23andMe receives patent

05/10/2013

The genetic testing company 23andMe has obtained a patent in the USA for the selection of human semen and oocytes. In the future, so-called designer babies are conceivable, because customers could theoretically choose sperm donors in such a way that the chances of certain characteristics in the child are increased. The company weighs down.

$ 99 for genetic analysis
For the price of $ 99, the US biotechnology company 23andMe offers their customers the analysis of their own genetic material. If two of their customers agree to reveal their DNA to each other, they may as well „Family Traits Inheritance Calculator“ a program that can be used to calculate what traits could be inherited to a child. The company is now innocently responding to requests for the patent granted to them in September this year. By the US patent number 8543339 future parents could make the preselection for the donor genes. For example, one can determine the likelihood of eye color, heart attack risk or lactose tolerance. However, according to press responses, the company does not pursue plans related to fertility clinics.

What features are desired in a child
Despite all the protestations, the patent arouses the suspicion of critics. The bioethicists Sigrid Sterckx from the University of Ghent and Heidi Howard from the French Université de Toulouse commented with colleagues in the journal „Genetics in Medicine“ It is clear that the company has patented a method that allows egg donors to be selected according to the characteristics of future parents in a child. The selection would be based on an algorithm that compares the genetic characteristics of the two biological parents. All kinds of genetic characteristics are conceivable, from cancer risk over height to personality types.

Company weighs down
Among other things, a figure in the patent application is seen as questionable, in which a questionnaire appears, in which it says: „I prefer a child with ... “, followed by answers ranging from a low colorectal cancer risk to great chances for green eyes. After the professional publication and a report on the US website of the technology magazine „Wired“ 23andMe has also recognized the explosiveness of the topic. In Germany had about first the trade blog „placebo alarm“ at „scienceblogs.de“ reported. The genome analysts stated in a blog entry that the four-year-old patent application only the „Family Traits Inheritance Calculator“ should protect. On the assumption that there was a potential for use in fertility clinics, the application was formulated beyond that. However, much has changed since then, including its own strategic orientation. „The company has never followed the concepts discussed in the patent beyond the Family Traits Inheritance Calculator, and we have no plans to do so“, it says in a statement.

Patent could have been rejected for moral reasons
In any case, putting together a designer baby as desired harder than expected. This is also the bioethicists in „Genetics in Medicine“ 23andMe benefit. And even with the methods of genetic analysis of the biotechnology company, parents with a desire to have children would only get a chance to increase the chances of certain desirable traits in the offspring. The authors are outraged, however, that the US Patent Office does not seem to have come up with the idea of ​​the patent being morally reprehensible. Even though there is no such explicit morality clause in US patent law, in a similar case a patent was never granted for moral reasons. At that time, US scientists had filed a patent for chimeras from humans and animals, in order to draw attention to the topic.

No patent possible in Europe
According to the European Patent Office (EPA) in Munich, the US biotech company also applied for an international patent application. However, following a search of the state of the art to which the EPO had been assigned, the company had no longer applied for a European patent application. „An examination of the patent under European patent law has therefore not even taken place“, so the speaker. Christoph Then, Managing Director of the Munich Institute for Independent Impact Assessment in Biotechnology (Testbiotec e.V.) criticized the project of the US company: „The genetic identity of a person must not depend on fashion, market and opinion.“ And further: „Business ideas based on the production of designer babies must not be funded by patents.“ The patent should also be considered as a business idea and such would anyway be considered as non-patentable by the European Patent Office. (Ad)

Image: Sabrina Gonstalla