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Stickier than the economic question is the ethical one. Most of us reflexively shrink from the idea of anyone's owning the rights to any part of the human form. Besides, if the first anatomist to spot, say, the pancreas was not granted title to it, why should modern genome-mapping scientists be able to claim even a single gene? As Kahn points out, "You could patent a system for mining gold from ore. We don't let people patent the gold." That kind of argument is grounded not in law but in the very idea of what it means to be human--an issue that even the highest federal court is not likely to settle.
--By Jeffrey Kluger