Human-animal chimera patent denied

Stuart Newman had filed the application in an attempt to prevent others from creating such a hybrid; Newman himself had no intention of creating one. The PTO rejected the application on the grounds that it could cover creatures "too human to patent."

The paper trail created by the Newman claim offers perhaps the best explication yet for that ban. One rationale in the documents sent to Newman is that such a patent would be "inconsistent with the constitutional right to privacy." After all, the office wrote, a patent allows the owner to exclude others from making the claimed invention. If a patent were to issue on a human, it would conflict with one of the Constitution's core privacy rights -- a person's right to decide whether and when to procreate.