Question

• Christoph Lengauer makes an analogy stating that cells should be treated with the same value as oil. He states, "Why not treat valuable cells like oil? When you find oil on somebody's property, it doesn't automatically belong to them, but they do get a portion of the profits." Why not treat valuable cells like oil, he said. When you find oil on somebody property, it doesn't automatically belong to them, but they do get a portion of the profits."(p. 267). Do you agree with Lengauer’s analogy? Why or why not?
• Think about some of the interactions that occurred throughout the book. What examples can you find that would now be prohibited by the laws, statutes, and acts covered this week?

Answer 1

No, I do not fully agree with Lengauer’s analogy. The valuable cells cannot be sold in the open market, there are no ticker quotations for “valuable cells”, and there are no buyers for these cells. In contrast, crude oil when found on the property of a person has a current market value, it is traded in exchanges, and the crude has a well-defined demand. For example, crude oil is used for refining, converting it into lubricants, fuels, and additives. Each has a well defined specific value in the market. Besides, there is a well-developed law about how a person with oil on his property should be compensated.

The examples in the book are thought-provoking. Cells appropriated from her body were used by doctors to revolutionize medicine. The book points out that these cells were removed without the permission of Henrietta's body. Doctors mixed them with plasma to grow her tumor cells in the laboratory. This was remarkable because a human cell line had survived outside the body. These cells have been grown more than 50 million tones, and have benefitted hundreds of millions of patients through the manufacture of drugs, studies that improved the understanding of cancers, genetics research, and vaccines. The use of her cells is widely acknowledged in scientific papers. Nothing in return has been given to Henrietta's family. The family is asking for health insurance!

From the legal standpoint, the cells were used without permission, the profits were made without consent, there was misappropriation and theft. The case is even more serious because when these cells were taken John Hopkins Hospital was racially segregated and the family did not know of the taking of the cells till many years after the mother had expired. Currently, the statute of limitations forbids the family from taking legal action.