Harriet Washington

The complicated legacy of Dr. J. Marion Sims, who pioneered advancements in gynecology by experimenting on slaves without anesthesia. 

From Typhoid Mary to the AIDS epidemic to the Ebola crisis: The language of exclusion has a long history in terms of fighting disease in the United States.

Can companies patent human genes? That's the question before the Supreme Court today, as the justices hear arguments in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc.. 

Harriet Washington explains the “life patent” gold rush and why she thinks it will have harmful, and even lethal, consequences for public health. The United States Patent Office has granted at least 40,000 patents so far on genes controlling the most basic processes of human life. In Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself—and the Consequences for Your Health and Our Medical Future she examines the legal, ethical, and social bases for pharmaceutical companies’ position that such patents are necessary.