Arguments Against Henrietta Lacks

There is a saying, usually associated with acts of war. This saying is “the ends justify the means,” which means although bad things may be done to reach an end goal, the end goal may be so good that the means of reaching it are justifiable. But do the ends truly justify the means in all cases? This is something that can be debated in the story of a loving mother who lost her life while battling cervical cancer. Her name was Henrietta Lacks. Her doctor, without her true knowledge, took her cells. While Henrietta sadly died, those extracted cells lived on, continuing to split, and grow. The ethical debate is whether it was right for her doctor to extract, and sell, Henrietta’s cells without her true knowledge. The debates cover sub topics such as the doctor’s choice to extract and sell the cells, Henrietta’s lack of knowledge, Henrietta’s families

lack of compensation, or say, and about the ends, that may or may not justify the means.

“Like many doctors of his era, (Richard Wesley) TeLinde often used patients from the public wards for research, usually without there knowledge. Many scientists believed that since patients were treated for free in the public wards, it was fair to use them as research subjects as a form of payment” because this was a common practice of the time, TeLinde probably didn’t give it a second thought. This in and of itself seems immoral, but there are always factors that have to be addressed. In some cases, the testing that doctors did on patients probably did hurt them. But in the case of Henrietta, there was not truly any harm done to her, not physically. Other than the pain the extraction may have caused, any testing done was not advancing her cancer, or killing her in any other way. In this aspect, there was not ethical wrong doing. “No harm no foul” as some would say. And her cells were reproducing. “They reproduced an entire generation every twenty-four hours, and they never stopped. They became the first immortal human cells ever grown in a laboratory.” Which was very helpful to the advancement of science, one of the “ends.” Henrietta’s cells were given to George Gey, head of tissue research at Hopkins. He was the first to grow HeLa cells. “Gey was able to isolate one specific cell, multiply it, and start a cell line.” This was the start to many advancements, all because Henrietta’s cells survived. “But Henrietta's cells weren't merely surviving, they were growing with mythological intensity … Soon, George told a few of his closest colleagues that he thought his lab might have grown the first immortal human cells. To which they replied, Can I have some? And George said yes” this may seem harmless, just a scientist sharing his discoveries, and the product of them, but there are a few issues with this exchange.

One of the main issues, is Henrietta’s lack of knowledge about what she was agreeing to. She had no idea what her cells would become, or that they would be sold for millions. Henrietta was given a paper to sign at the beginning of her treatment, one that said “I hereby give consent to the staff of The John Hopkins Hospital to do any operative procedures and under any anesthetic either local or general that they may deem necessary in the proper surgical care and treatment of, under which she signed her name, a witness signing as well. Due to the fact that she signed this, it was legal for the doctors to extract her cells, but did Henrietta fully understand to what extent the “operative procedures” would advance? Most likely not. Henrietta most likely did not understand that she was giving consent to experimentation on her cells that did not involve her specific case of cervical cancer. She also probably didn’t know that any extracted cells and any reproduction of them could be sold. She was completely unaware of what she was truly signing, or what this would mean for her or the future generations of her family. She most definitely did not know what her cells would do for science. This, is the aspect of the story of Henrietta lacks that can be truly deemed unethical. She was not thoroughly informed, and thus made an uninformed and ignorant decision. This was not her own fault, and this will cause turmoil for the future generations of her family.

Henrietta’s family was totally oblivious to the extraction and selling of her cells, while the doctors who sold Henrietta’s cells after her death were making millions.

Once the Lacks family found out, they were none too happy. They were “angry—angry that Henrietta’s cells were being sold for twenty-five dollars a vial” and their anger was justified. “Hopkins say they gave them cells away,” Lawrence yelled, “but they made millions! It’s not fair! She’s the most important person in the world and her family living in poverty. If our mother so important to science, why can’t we get health insurance?” Henrietta’s family’s lack of compensation is one of the unethical portions of this story. It’s possible, if the Lacks family was given compensation for their loved ones cells, this whole ordeal would be justifiable. But because the Lacks family is not living in a mansion on a hill with a large settlement, this is still up for debate. Henrietta’s family lives in poverty, while there loved one is one of the most important people to have ever lived. This is one of the stronger, pathos driven arguments against the ethics of this

story.

The “ends” of this story though, are very important to note. Because of the distribution of Henrietta’s cells, “In 1952, the worst year of the polio epidemic, HeLa cells were used to test the vaccine that protected millions.” And “Before HeLa cells, scientists spent more time trying to keep cells alive than performing actual research on the cells. An endless supply of HeLa cells freed up time for discovery.” And because “Some cells in Lacks' tissue sample behaved differently than others, Scientists learned to isolate one specific cell, multiply it, and start a cell line. Isolating one cell and keeping it alive is the basic technique for cloning and in-vitro fertilization.” and “A scientist accidentally poured a chemical on a HeLa cell that spread out its tangled chromosomes. Later on, scientists used this technique to determine that humans have 46 chromosomes—23 pairs—not 48, which provided the basis for making several types of genetic diagnoses.” Also, “It was discovered that Lacks' cancerous cells used an enzyme called telomeres to repair their DNA, allowing them, and other types of cancer cells, to function when normal cells would have died. Anti-cancer drugs that work against this enzyme are currently in early clinical trials.” “They also knew that there was a string of DNA at the end of each chromosome called a telomere, which shortened a bit each time a cell divided, like time ticking off a clock. As normal cells go through life, their telomeres shorten with each division until they’re almost gone. Then they stop dividing and begin to die. This process correlates with the age of a person: the older we are, the shorter our telomeres, and the fewer times our cells have left to divide before they die. By the early nineties, a scientist at Yale had used HeLa to discover that human cancer cells contain an enzyme called telomeres that rebuilds their telomeres. The presence of telomeres meant cells could keep regenerating their telomeres indefinitely. This explained the mechanics of HeLa’s immortality: telomeres constantly rewound the ticking clock at the end of Henrietta’s chromosomes so they never grew old and never died.” This could very well not only solve organ failure, but halt death all together. And in the case of Henrietta herself, like the author of “the immortal life of Henrietta lacks,” “I’ve tried to imagine how she’d feel knowing that her cells went up in the first space missions to see what would happen to human cells in zero gravity, or that they helped with some of the most important advances in medicine: the polio vaccine, chemotherapy, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization. I’m pretty sure that she—like most of us—would be shocked to hear that there are trillions more of her cells growing in laboratories now than there ever were in her body.”

So, because of the amazing ends, I feel the means are justifiable (though the lacks family should be thoroughly compensated.) because of Henrietta’s immortal cells, many important life altering discoveries have been made. Not only have they advanced medical sciences and biology, but also astronomy, and many other areas. Her cells have advanced the human race, and we would be far behind where we are now without them. Of course, her family was not treated fairly, and that wrong should be righted, but her cells have helped millions of people. I think, if there was such a way, Henrietta is (or would be) happy that this happened. Shed see what her cells have done for others and shed be thankful that her cells were distributed. I know this, because getting to know who she was through what her family had to say in “immortal life,” she was a truly good person, and her contribution, no matter how uninformed it was, has helped humanity to continue to strive towards a more advanced version of ourselves. In part, at least, we have Henrietta to thank for that.