Profit Rights for Patients

Genetic engineering is the gold mine of the future, and if its prospectors hit a mother lode--even if only by chance--they would still owe the mine owner a share (if not all) of the booty. If surgeon David Golde, researcher Shirley Quan, Sandoz Pharmaceutical Corp. and Genetics Institute Inc. truly wish to serve the good of mankind, let them donate the proceeds of their misappropriated raw material (worth an estimated $3 billion) to partially subsidize our shameful health care system. An individual can’t sell his organs, but our medical community can reap obscene profits from them?

PHYLLIS KLEINMAN

Los Angeles