Patents over ‘technologies’ related to how we treat, use, and modify the human body: An urgent need for greater bioethics scrutiny

Under the TRIPS framework, patents must be granted in all fields of technology, including health-technologies. Patents give rightsholders significant control over patented technologies as they enable them to exclude others from using these for commercial purposes. The human body per se is not patentable. However, many technologies that relate to how we treat, use, and modify the body are patentable. For example, in Europe, patentable technologies include those that can treat the body (eg, medicines), technologies that can affect how we use elements derived from the body (eg, isolated human genes are patentable in certain contexts), and technologies that can modify (including enhance) the body (eg, neuro-technologies). Using a novel five-category taxonomy of patentable technologies related to how we treat, use, and modify the human body, this article demonstrates that such patents—and their use—can pose significant bioethical implications, focusing on implications for autonomy, dignity, and bodily integrity interests. It demonstrates that these bioethical implications are not routinely considered in European patent grant or licensing decision-making. This article challenges this. It argues that greater scrutiny is needed over these bioethical implications and over the connection that patented technologies have with how we treat, use, and modify the human body.