Commonwealth and Ownership of One's Story

Thoughts on writer's ethics inspired by Ann Patchet's novel.

I am almost to the end of Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth. It is as gorgeously vivid and alive as I had hoped, and an absolute gem. If you have not, I would definitely recommend reading it. It’s best paired with a rainy twilight and a warm beverage of some kind.
The story, however, made me think there should some sort of author’s code of honor. After all, the later part of the plot involves a theft or violation of a kind.
A brief summary of events: Two families are joined together by an affair. The six children from both sides join forces and learn to get along through their childhoods until tragedy strikes and one of children dies.
One of the children, Franny, is working at a bar after a failed stint in law school when she makes the acquaintance of the great writer Leon Posen. They end up together and she tells him the story of her childhood. He then writes a novel based on her story, hurting her and her family in the process and leading to the end of their relationship.
What’s wrong with his behavior? To start with, he doesn’t ask if it’s alright to write Franny’s story down, neither (it seems) does he give her veto power once it is written. With only the thinnest veil of fiction, he sends out the deepest memories and secrets of his partner and of her family into the world to be viewed by all for profit.
Isn’t that monstrous? Leon Posen basically sells a part of the life of a person he should value greatly and that of dozens of people he has never met for a good story and greater fame.
At the back of my mind, I kept pondering. Had anything like this actually happened?
An aside: I’m against those who steal others stories, not autobiographers or honest biographers (though they still have some ethical concerns to think of).We talk all the time about consent when it comes to one’s body, property, information etc. Isn’t a person’s life story something they own?
So, if you hear another’s tale, know you have no inherent right to it. Ask them, involve them in the reviewing process, listen if they object. If you are writing your own story, remember it isn’t necessarily just yours but also that of anyone who was in your life in any meaningful way, so except for extraordinary circumstances, try to follow that process, leave them out, or well and throughly hide their identity. Anything else is a violation.