shanna swan. welcome to 60 minutes on cnbc. i'm lesley stahl. be exploring the world of science in this episode. later we'll bring you morley safer's story about the human genome patents being awarded to biotech companies and the proprietary control they now have over part of who you are. and then my report on a ubiquitous chemical called phthalates, which is in everything from perfume to children's toys, but which may also be causing birth defects. but first, steve kroft's story on the enormous amount of money being spent to treat people as they approach the end of their lives. how much money? well, in 2009, medicare paid $55 billion for doctor and hospital bills for patients as they approached the last two months of life. to give you some perspective, that's more than the budget for the department of homeland security or the department of education. and as we reported in 2009, most of those bills were paid for by the government with few or no questions asked and with an estimated 30% of the treatments having no meaningful impact. >> ms. klish,