Interesting link here if you wish to read it.
http://stlr.org/2010/03/09/tissue-right ... -a-person/The Personal Side to the Story
Recently, renewed interest in this cell line has focused on its origin rather than its results. In this case, scientists named HeLa cells after the patient in whom they first found them: Henrietta Lacks. Lacks suffered from a particularly virulent strain of cervical cancer and, after unsuccessful radium treatment, died in 1951 at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Maryland. Without Lacks’ knowledge or consent, her doctor shared a sample of her tumors with a researcher, Dr. George Gey, intent on developing an immortal cell line. With Lacks’ tumor cells, the researcher succeeded in making the line that led to medical advancements and high profits.
This behind-the-back cellular research and development story has recently become the subject of controversy. “Tissue rights” scholars now question whether or not patients should retain any control over cells removed from their body. Currently, cells be bought and sold without the patients’ permission, but tissue rights advocates suggest that these often-unwitting donors deserve a share in the profits their cells eventually reap.
Complicating the issue is the fact that some believe Henrietta Lacks’ story to primarily be a “case of a black woman whose body had been exploited by white scientists.” The contrast between her children and grandchildren’s continued poverty and the vast profits made from commercializing the HeLa cell line heightens the feeling that the scientists responsible cheated Lacks and her family. Also troubling is the fact that researchers continued to collect genetic material for the purposes of HeLa cell development from these family members long after Lacks died, under the guise of routine cancer screening diagnostics.
Legal Complications
Given the current state of the law, the Henrietta Lackses of the world have a hard argument to make if they believe they deserve a share of the profits. In a similar case in the 1980s, researchers removed the spleen of John Moore as part of his leukemia treatment.
Recognizing the unique scientific and financial potential of Moore’s particular cancerous cells, his doctor promptly developed a cell line from the extracted lymphocytes, patented the line, and licensed it for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The doctor also gathered samples of Moore’s blood and other tissue on future visits; he told Moore’s that his continued health depended upon such testing but did not reveal that he was keeping the samples to aid in his research. The resulting cell line, Mo, now has a market value of around $3 billion.Placing a patent on a gene(s) in Canada. This will go to the SCoC as the company has nothing to lose and everything to gain.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/u-s-gene- ... -1.2820211
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