Henrietta Lacks Essay

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Recommended: Ethical issues with genetic testing

To really understand the plight of the Lacks family one must first know a bit about the scientific culture of the time. Ethics in human research has taken a long time to evolve and that progress came in part due to accounts similar to the life of Henrietta Lacks. Skloot wonderfully weaves several story lines together to cover all sides of single narrative.
Whether it be the ruthless forward progress of the medical research machine and the exploitation of the Lacks family and other patients in the mid 20th century, the world shaking scientific advances made by said machine, or the long lasting effects that the family must deal with over 40 years later, you are stuck in a tug-of-war. Should we always respect a person’s absolute right to their …show more content…

Through several anecdotes, which are encapsulated by chapter titles such as “Illegal, Immoral and Deplorable” (147) and “Who Told You You Could Sell My Spleen?” (227), the questions of how research is conducted and who owns your cells once they are removed from your body are constantly posed.
In the former, a researcher wishes to test the effects of injecting Henrietta’s “immortal” malignant cancer cells into patients both with and without cancer. The fault here is that these injections were performed primarily without consent. After eventually being brought in front of the New York State Board of Regents over these questionable practices, the board ruled that everyone has the right to what is done to their body. Scientists of the time believed this was the end of progress for cancer research, however, according to Skloot it continued to flourish …show more content…

However, in the case of the Lackses there was no fighting back. Being that they were a poor black family they followed everything that the white doctors told them. After Henrietta’s death her widowed husband was asked by the hospital if they could do an autopsy on her. While he originally told them no, they lied and told him that they wanted to perform it because it could help his children, when in reality they wanted to study her for her cells. He then went on to say they he always went by what the doctor said for the simple fact that he was a doctor (188-189). This was the norm for anyone who was uneducated and a minority at that time and one of the main tenants of sociology of health is that people respond to health problems in a manner that consists with their norms and

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