Chapter 25: “Who Told You You Could Sell My Spleen?”
This chapter surrounds a man named John Moore, and his fight for the claim over his own cells. It also talks about David Golde, the doctor that stole his cells, and the Supreme Court of California. Issues like privacy/rights and science/med are discussed throughout the chapter, and is told through the lens of a journalist, scientist, and lawyer.
In 1976, the Lacks family found out that people had been buying and selling Henrietta’s cells. That same year, John Moore, a worker on the Alaska Pipeline, found he had hairy-cell leukemia, rare cancer that filled his spleen with malignant cells. His local doctor, David Golde, told him that his spleen had to be removed, and it was 22 pounds heavier than the normal spleen. After the surgery, Moore continued with his life, but every few months between the years 1976 and 1983, he would come back to Los Angeles for follow-up exams. In the beginning, Moore thought nothing about these exams, but when he got suspicious of Golde’s persistent attitude, he found out that for seven years, his doctor had been taking his cells and developing and marking a cell line called Mo. He made more than $3.5 million off of Moore, and the estimated market value would eventually rise to $3 billion. Mo cells could treat infection and cancer. It also carried a rare virus called HTLV, which can be used to create a vaccine for AIDS.
In 1980, a man named Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty created genetically engineered bacteria that can consume and clean up oil spills. In court, he argued and won the claim that GMOs and cell lines could be patented, as long as it didn’t occur naturally. This helped Golde patent Moore’s cells and take advantage of his lack of knowledge. In the 1970s, when a doctor realized that his patient, Ted Slavin, had high concentrations of hepatitis B antibodies in his blood, he actually told him. This led Slavin to begin selling his blood for about ten dollars per milliliter, and when he partnered with a virologist, found a vaccine for hepatitis B. Moore, however, couldn’t sell his own cells anymore, so he sued Golde and UCLA for deceit and use of his body without consent, and claimed property rights over his own tissues. Scientists all over the world panicked; if patients never allowed them to take their cells, science and cell culture development would be halted. Seven years later, the Supreme Court of California ruled the final statement: When tissues are removed from your body, any claim over them vanishes, and if you leave tissues in a doctor’s office or lab, it becomes waste and anyone can come to pick it up. The court did tell Moore that Golde had taken advantage of his position as a doctor, because of the idea that patients should put their unwavering trust in doctors.
– Audrey Nguyen
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks 