Benny, what new manner of mischief are you up to?
I took a look at this book because it seemed vaguely familiar, and because it might be useful in future discussions I might have concerning medical ethics.
Along with 24KT, I think that the story behind Henrietta Lacks' inestimable contribution to science and modern human life shows how hitherto silent voices have had great impact on contemporary society. However, sometimes we find that those who set out to right such wrongs can be evasively clever, if not deceitful, on how to present and frame certain narratives. The blurb on the book's cover, like the title of this thread, expresses moral indignation on how HeLa cells were collected without Lacks' consent. True. But, the book also states,
Like many doctors of his era, TeLinde [the researcher who collected Lacks' cancerous cells] often used patients from the public wards for
research, usually without their knowledge. Many scientists believed that since patients were treated for free in the public wards, it was
fair to use them as research subjects as a form of payment …. And TeLinde began collecting samples from any woman who happened to
walk into Hopkins with cervical cancer. Including Henrietta (pp. 29-30).
Although it might seem extremely cold comfort, the utilitarian aspect of medical research has seldom been good moral business. For its part in the story, Johns Hopkins started as a charity hospital to serve the poor, and it never used the HeLa cells for any commercial venture (p. 225). The quote above makes clear that the practice of collecting cell samples was not confined only to Lacks, and "though no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting samples or asked if she wanted to be a donor" (p. 33), she was merely one of at least 30 sick women who had undergone the same hidden procedure. Was this practice ethical? No. Should Lacks' family receive some form of compensation? Probably.
Lacks' personal story is very sad, and it conveys the awful suffering that patients with terminal cancer have in common. There is also little doubt that African Americans have been exploited in medical research;* however, other than the fact that Lacks was an unwitting donor of game-changing cells, her contribution to science was passive. Recognition for her necessary role in medical history was unfairly delayed, but a lot more needs to be said about the talented medical researchers who made groundbreaking and productive use of the HeLa cells (which are very unruly and can easily contaminate other cell cultures). Of course, the book is mostly silent about this aspect. Its focus is on Lacks' personal story, and the unethical (but perfectly legal at the time) nature of tissue rights.
*See Harriet Washington, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present.
Having said all this, I must relate that the most memorable character in the book is one "Dr. Sir Lord," a.k.a. Dr. Sir Lord Keenan Kester Cofield, who, an unabashed serial litigant, deserves special mention in some detail:
Sir Lord Keenan Kester Cofield was the cousin of Deborah's [Henrietta Lacks' daughter] husband's former stepdaughter, or something like
that. No one in the family remembers for sure …. Keenan Kester Cofield wasn't a doctor or lawyer at all. In fact, Cofield had served years
in various prisons for fraud, much of it involving bad checks, and he'd spent his jail time taking law courses and launching what one judge
called "frivolous" lawsuits. Cofield sued guards and state officials connected to the prisons he'd been in, and was accused of calling the
governor of Alabama from jail and threatening to murder him. Cofield sued McDonald's and Burger King for contaminating his body by
cooking fries in pork fat, and he threatened to sue several restaurants for food poisoning—including the Four Seasons in New York City—
all while he was incarcerated and unable to eat at any restaurants. He sued The Coca-Cola Company, claiming a bottle of soda he'd
bought was filled with ground glass, though he was in a prison that only offered Pepsi products in aluminum cans. He'd also been
convicted of fraud for a scam in which he got an obituary of himself published, then sued the newspaper for libel and damages up to $100
million. He told the FBI that he'd filed at least 150 similar lawsuits (pp. 225-27).
LMAO