March 1998
Cashing In On Medical Knowledge
Some doctors have begun patenting not just devices but medical procedures and techniques. Proponents argue that this practice is needed to foster innovation in medical care. Critics claim that it perverts the Hippocratic oath and drives up medical costs.
By Seth Shulman
Each year, nearly every pregnant woman in the United States takes a blood test to screen for the possibility that the child she carries will have a birth defect. By measuring the concentration of several substances in the pregnant woman's blood, the so-called multiple-marker blood screen can warn a woman that her baby likely has a birth defect such as Down's syndrome, a genetic defect that causes retardation.
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology