In [Charlie Rose – An hour with Michael Crichton], Crichton talks about gene patents preventing doctors from treating illness. For example, Company X sequences the genes for Tuberculous and patents the genes. Doctors will no longer be able to test patients for Tuberculous or treat the disease without approval from Company X. This leads potentially to the patient dying. Later, Crichton talks about Universities have become so commercial that they will not release information about how many patients have died from treatment at their schools. It’s a little scary when a corporation can own a disease. Corporations stand to make money with patents in diseases like Mad Cow, the tomato outbreak, Bird Flu, Milk powder in China, etc.