Research On Legal Protection Of Human Genetic Information And Its Path In China

With the rapid development of the human gene technology about gene detectionand gene therapy, technology not only brings enormous benefits to human, but alsoproduces a series of negative impacts of large number of legal, social and ethicalissues. However, at present, the level of the gene technology development of ourcountry is far less than the United States, Japan and other developed countries, andthe lag of the current related laws and regulation becomes obvious. The Myriad case(Association for Molecular Pathology) is comprehensive challenging the humangene patent awarded the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This casereflects the outburst contradictions surrounding of the human gene patent, and thefocus of the problem is whether it is appropriate to award the rights of human genepatent. In this case, the problem reflected is of universal significance for China, andit is also extremely significance for thinking through which legal path to protect thehuman genetic information.This essay begins with the special properties of human genetic information, it isbelieved that human genetic information both possess the attributes of personalityright and property right. Next，this paper introduces the background and progress ofthe Myriad case, sorting out the main points of dispute cases and the underlyingreasons of these controversial points—the uneven benefits, the conflict of rights andscience deviation from humanities. Based on this view, this paper use the method ofcomparative study on the analysis of the mainly law path of human geneticprotection in different countries—the way of using intellectual property law andusing contract to protect human genetic information. And then this paper makes acomparison between these two paths and analyzes on the current legal system of ourcountry. Finally this article applies the method of value analysis and argue that ourcountry should choose the intellectual property right law as the main protective pathand notices that there are some noticeable problems and the measures that should be taken.