Where law and science meet, you'll find the name Henrietta Lacks. 
 Once upon a time (when no one thought twice about such things), a doctor took a sample of a cancerous growth and used it for science. No one was asked, no forms were signed, the family never even knew about it. They certainly didn't understand it until very, very recently. 
 Since then, that sample has become the first of it's kind. It's still going, still growing, still dividing. It's what they call an "immortal" cell. It was the first cultured human cell that was mass produced, and shipped worldwide. It's so strong and hardy, it contaminates and takes over other cell cultures... often to the point of costing millions of dollars and wasting years of research time. 
 It's HeLa, and it's ubiquitous. 
 This is the story of that woman, but we know almost nothing about her. It's more the story of her surviving family- poorly educated, small town, lower class black family- with everything against them, and their struggles to understand and come to grips with modern medical science. How this happened. Why no one was told. How HeLa cells can be bought and sold for profit while the family struggles to afford medical care. And the heroic struggle of a daughter who fights her way out of ignorance and suspicion in order to learn what happened to the mother she never knew. 
 It does raise serious legal questions regarding medical use of tissue samples. When does my flesh and blood stop being mine. How informative does informed consent really need to be? And how can the research and pharmaceutical industry make millions without compensating the "donors" who gave the tissues on which their work is ultimately based. 
 Once upon a time, tissue samples were essentially Open Source, samples traded and given away in the name of advancing medical science. Now that industry makes millions from them, and essentially decides the fate of mankind based on what it will profit from, these issues will need to be dealt with, and in the near future.