Assigning Rights and Protecting Interests: Constructing Ethical and Efficient Legal Rights in Human Tissue Research‪.‬

I. INTRODUCTION On March 11, 2009, nine families filed suit against the state of Minnesota, arguing that the state, after collecting blood samples from newborns for routine screening, unlawfully retained the samples indefinitely and shared the samples with private research institutions and hospitals--all without parental knowledge or consent. (1) A day later, parents in Texas filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, alleging similar conduct by Texas officials and arguing that retaining and using newborn blood without parental knowledge or consent violates the U.S. and Texas Constitutions. (2) In both of these cases, families objected to the unconsented-to use of human tissue for unidentified research purposes, including genetic research. Meanwhile, on May 12, 2009, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") and Myriad Genetics, seeking to invalidate patents Myriad holds for two genes responsible for most hereditary breast and ovarian cancers. (3)