Patents guarantee public disclosure of new discoveries and inventions to make sure that others can build on them. No one is patenting the human genome, scientists and companies are patenting human genes that they think will lead to the development of new treatments for disease. There is no value in a patent on the human gene unless it leads to a new therapeutic or diagnostic. Conversely, new medicines will not be developed without patents. Anyone who has lost a family member or friend to cancer surely can appreciate the exciting potential within the human genome to detect and cure that fatal disease.
Patents make it possible to realize that potential.