Masha Slavin

This is Sir Frederick Banting. He discovered insulin in 1923. But he refused to put his name on the patent. Why? Because Banting felt it was unethical to profit from a discovery that would save lives. But pharmaceutical companies made huge financial offers to Banting for the patent, knowing they could make billions. They even sweetened the deal, offering an insulin clinic, with Sir Banting in charge... a temping offer to almost doctor in his position. Banting, however, said his discovery of isolated insulin was a gift to mankind. He felt this critical medicine should be available to everyone who needed it. In 1923, Banting was just 31 years old when he was awarded the Nobel Prize. Tragically, in 1941 while flying on a plane to personally protect scientific secrets from the Nazis, his plane crashed. He was killed. Banting's co-inventors, in his honor, sold the patent for insulin to the University of Toronto for the appropriate sum they thought appropriate – one dollar. Today, 30 million Americans with diabetes rely on his gift to mankind. To honor Sir Frederick Banting, it should remain a gift to mankind.