BTW, I just watched "Ultra Violet" the other day - same basic issue (and some REALLY cool martial arts work - with a bit of CGI help).

but I had to read the wiki plot to understand what was going on.

That was the "here's a credit card, go get us some food" scene. Couldn't figure that out.

Henrietta Lacks was a black woman back during the Jim Crow era. She didn't have alot of money and although John Hopkins was one of the few hospitals that would treat an African-American, I would suspect if she was white she would have received better care from the start and perhaps caught this cancer before it spread as bad as it did.

Thing is this - her descendants; none of them really had much money and yet billions of dollars have been made off her cells. Not just from the cells being sold again and again and again, but the number of diseases cured using those cells and the money made off of the treatments discovered. When the family found out they were very upset - had someone given a portion of the sales to the family, since in reality that is their relative being used again and again, then perhaps that family could have had a better life.

It does come down to ownership of your own body. I've seen so many God damn examples of situational ethics where leaders decide it's okay to cross the line for the greater good. The problem is that their decisions often come down to who they can take advantage of, and who might fight back.

Our world has not improved when ex-military leaders joined the business ranks and the business world encroached in government. Many of the reasons they abuse power is because nobody can stop them. As you might conclude, I haven't read the Henrietta books because I'll probably lose my cool.

I tend to read about 5 books at a time. But in a nutshell - Lacks never gave permission for her cells to be used like this and they had even asked her permission (she said no). But one of the scientists noted how unique they were and figured the woman was going to die so 'who cares'.

The family was going to sue for royalties but I think there was a settlement out of court. I mean the cells have been invaluable with millions of lives being impacted and saved because of the research done on them. And there has been very few other cells found that could do the same. So for the family it was never about denying their use for future projects, just claiming what rightfully theirs - which was payment for use of the cells.

I have read where there is talks of turning the book into a movie. I could see this as a good project for HBO.

EDIT NOTE: Turns out I was right - HBO is developing a movie based on the book. Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball ("American Beauty"/"Six Feet Under"/"True Blood&quot are involved.

http://www.oprah.com/pressroom/Harpo-Films-Alan-Ball-and-HBO-The-Immortal-Life-of-Henrietta-Lacks

I hope they got well rewarded for what they had to go through. And I'll probably see the HBO show because it sounds like it has a satisfactory ending.