Michael Crichton on Why Gene Patents Are Bad

BayaWeaver writes "Michael Crichton, author of The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park has made a strong case against gene patents in an op-ed for the New York Times. Striking an emotional chord, he begins with 'You, or someone you love, may die because of a gene patent that should never have been granted in the first place. Sound far-fetched? Unfortunately, it's only too real.' From there, he moves on to use logic, statistics, and his way with words to make his point. Arguing against the high costs of gene therapies thanks to related patents, he eventually offers hope that one day legislation will de-incentivize the hoarding of scientific knowledge. As he points out: 'When SARS was spreading across the globe, medical researchers hesitated to study it — because of patent concerns. There is no clearer indication that gene patents block innovation, inhibit research and put us all at risk.'"

Comments

Repetition

[MrSteveSD]

Sort of off topic I know, but how does Michael Crichton manage to get away with witting the same story again and again? i.e. We develop some cool piece of technology, then it all goes horribly wrong because we don't really know what we're doing.

Westworld - Our theme-park androids go haywire and kill us.
Jurassic Park - Our Genetically engineered Dinosaurs go out of control and kill us.
Runaway - Tom Selleck battles crazy Robot things. Again, our own inventions go bad.
Prey - Our Nanotechnology goes haywire

Feel free to add to the list.

Repetitiousness

[kahei]

I realize this isn't wholly relevant, but how does Michael Crichton manage to get away with just rehashing the same basic narrative over and over? e.g. We create some cool technological artifact and then disaster ensues because we don't truly understand our own actions.

Westworld -- Theme-park robots freak out and slaughter humans.
Jurassic Park -- Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amuck
Running Man -- Arnie battles mad mechanical men. Again, our own creations turn evil.
This Post -- It starts off amusing but quickly gets old. Or does it?

Feel free to append more stuff to this collection.