Furey's Lectures

I found Furey's lecture on genetic information quite interesting for several reasons. One thing that struck me as interesting was the fact that companies are trying to make a profit out of sequencing a person's genome. In my mind, as Furey explained it, this is ridiculous because these reports do not really reveal any significant information. For example, if the test tells the person that he has a 10% more chance of getting a certain disease, but the disease is only found in 2% of the population, then the chance the person gets the disease is 2.2%. This information (the 10%) is misleading especially because the people who receive these reports do not really understand it. Further, the reports do not really come with any kind of analysis that reveals the truth. Furthermore, I found it really strange that companies are trying to patent different parts of the human genome. In my opinion, this should not be allowed becuase it might significantly destroy the prospects of the advancement of technology. For example, I believe that a certain company patented part of the genome that may help in curing breast cancer; however, this means that other companies can not use this to further science. This could be a major problem in the future when companies figure out different ways to cure diseases but they are unable to use what they find because it is patented.