"It saves everyone expense," Rodriguez said.
"So what are you proposing as a settlement, for us to drop the case?"
"Nothing whatever, Ms. Burnet. I'm sorry if you misunderstood me. This is not a negotiation. We're simply here to explain our position, so that you can make an informed decision in your best interest."
Her father cleared his throat. "You're telling us that you're taking my cells, no matter what. You've sold them for three billion dollars, no matter what. And you're keeping all of that money, no matter what."
"Bluntly put," Rodriguez said, "but not inaccurate."
The meeting ended. Rodriguez and his team thanked them for their time, said their good-byes, and left the room. Alex nodded to her father and then followed the other attorneys outside. Through the glass, Frank Burnet watched as they talked further.
"Those fuckers," he said. "What kind of world do we live in?"
"My sentiments exactly,"said a voice from behind him. Burnet turned.
A young man wearing horn-rimmed glasses was sitting in the far corner of the conference room. Burnet remembered him; he had come in during the meeting, bringing coffee and mugs, which he had put on the sideboard. Then he had sat down in the corner for the rest of the meeting. Burnet had assumed he was a junior member of the firm, but now the young man was speaking with confidence.
"Let's face it, Mr. Burnet," he said, "you've been screwed. It turns out your cells are very rare and valuable. They're efficient manufacturers of cytokines, chemicals that fight cancer. That's the real reason you survived your disease. As a matter of fact, your cells churn out cytokines more efficiently than any commercial process. That's why those cells are worth so much money. The UCLA doctors didn't create anything or invent anything. They didn't genetically modify anything. They just took your cells, grew them in a dish, and sold the dish to BioGen. And you, my friend, werescrewed ."
"Who are you?" Burnet said.
"And you have no hope of justice," the young man continued, "because the courts are totally incompetent. The courts don't realize how fast things are changing. They don't understand we arealready in a new world. They don't get the new issues. And because they are technically illiterate, they don't understand what procedures are done - or in this case, not done. Your cells were stolen and sold. Plain and simple. And the court decided that was just fine."
Burnet gave a long sigh.
"But," the man continued, "thieves can still get their comeuppance."
"How's that?"
"Because UCLA did nothing to change your cells, another company could take those same cells, make minor genetic modifications, and sell them as a new product."
"But BioGen already has my cells."
"True. But cell lines are fragile. Things happen to them."
"What do you mean?"
"Cultures are vulnerable to fungus, bacterial infection, contamination, mutation. All kinds of things can go wrong."
"BioGen must take precautions..."
"Of course. But sometimes the precautions are inadequate," the man said.
"Who are you?" Burnet said again. He was looking around, through the glass walls of the conference room, at the larger office outside. He saw people walking back and forth. He wondered where his daughter had gone.
"I'm nobody," the young man said. "You never met me."
"You have a business card?"
The man shook his head. "I'm not here, Mr. Burnet."
Burnet frowned. "And my daughter - "
"Has no idea. Never met her. This is between us."
"But you're talking about illegal activity."
"I'm not talking at all, because you and I have never met," the man said. "But let's consider how this might work."
"Okay..."
"You can'tlegally sell your cells at this point, because the court has ruled you no longer own them - BioGen does. But your cells could be obtained from other places. Over the course of your life, you've given blood many times in many places. You went to Vietnam forty years ago. The army took your blood. You had knee surgery twenty years ago in San Diego. The hospital took your blood, and kept your cartilage. You've consulted various doctors over the years. They ran blood tests. The labs kept the blood. So your blood can be found, no problem. And it can be acquired from publicly available databases - if, for example, another company wanted to use your cells."
"And what about BioGen?"
The young man shrugged. "Biotechnology is a difficult business. Contaminations happen every day. If something goes wrong in their labs, that's not your problem, is it?"
"But how could - "
"I have no idea. So many things can happen."
There was a short silence. "And why should I do this?" Burnet said.
"You'll get a hundred million dollars."
"For what?"
"Punch biopsies of six organ systems."
"I thought you could get my blood elsewhere."
"In theory. If it came to litigation, that would be claimed. But, in practice, any company would want fresh cells."
"I don't know what to say."
"No problem. Think it over, Mr. Burnet." The young man stood, pushed his glasses up his nose. "You may have been screwed. But there's no reason to bend over for it."
From Beaumont CollegeAlumni News
STEM CELL DEBATE RAGES
Effective Treatments "Decades Away" Prof. McKeown Shocks Audience
By Max Thaler
Speaking to a packed audience in Beaumont Hall, famed biology professor Kevin McKeown shocked listeners by calling stem cell research "a cruel fraud."