“That Dr. Gross had sold my cells-the cells he took from my body during all these tests-to a drug company called BioGen.”
“And how did you feel when you heard that?”
“I was shocked,” her father said. “I had gone to Dr. Gross when I was sick, and scared, and vulnerable. I had trusted my doctor. I had put my life in his hands. I trusted him. And then it turned out that he had been lying to me, and scaring me needlessly for years, just so he could steal parts of my own body from me and sell them to make a profit. For himself. He never cared about me at all. He just wanted to take my cells.”
“Do you know what those cells were worth?”
“The drug company said three billion dollars.”
The jury gasped.
CHAPTER 002
Alex had been watching the jury all during the latest testimony. Their faces were impassive, but nobody moved, nobody shifted. The gasps were involuntary, evidence of how deeply engaged they were with what they were hearing. And the jury remained transfixed as the questions continued:
“Mr. Burnet, did Dr. Gross ever apologize to you for misleading you?”
“No.”
“Did he ever offer to share his profit with you?”
“No.”
“Did you ask him to?”
“Eventually I did, yes. When I realized what he had already done. They were my cells, from my body. I thought I should have something to say about what was done with them.”
“But he refused?”
“Yes. He said it was none of my business what he did with my cells.”
The jury reacted to that. Several turned and looked at Dr. Gross. That was a good sign, too, Alex thought.
“One final question, Mr. Burnet. Did you ever sign an authorization for Dr. Gross to use your cells for any commercial purposes?”
“No.”
“You never authorized their sale?”
“Never. But he did it anyway.”
“No further questions.”
The judge called a fifteen-minute recess, and when the court reconvened, the UCLA attorneys began the cross-examination. For this trial, UCLA had hired Raeper and Cross, a downtown firm that specialized in high-stakes corporate litigation. Raeper represented oil companies and major defense contractors. Clearly, UCLA did not regard this trial as a defense of medical research. Three billion dollars were at stake; it was big business, and they hired a big-business firm.