E-DRUG: MSF - Brazil rejects patent on an essential AIDS medicine (9)
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Thanks for clarification.
I still do not see how you can square the rights and laws that you say are
respected post-communism with the current situation of people loosing the
use of their "right" to free health care. They may not have "legally" lost
a right but practically they did. If you were one of those patients who is
almost blind because you cannot afford a cataract operation, I am not sure
how much you would care that your country respects property rights. I met
people who were practically blind. They told me that they used to have free
access to medical care including surgery but now they cannot so they have
to live to be blind.
Therefore I think the example of post communist is not a good one. The
right to health should be respected in all laws: national and international
because it is the right to life itself, which precedes any other rights.
As for Brazil: it is not about details of a particular case. It is about a
country using their legal rights as enshrined in their national laws. In
this case it was about a patent application.
I would love patent lawyers to apply their skills and eagerness in
defending IP, to other laws such as the international law against
discrimination, or for freedom of speech, or for freedom from genocide,..
etc. Perhaps the world would have been a better place!
Best wishes
Dr. Mohga M Kamal-Yanni
Senior health & HIV policy advisor
Oxfam GB
Tel: + 44 (0) 1865 472290
Fax + 44 (0) 1865 472245
Mobile + 44 (0)777 62 55 884