Theme of Bioethics in Ball and Wolfe’s (2017) The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
For three decades, scientists had been looking for human cells that could be successfully multiplied outside the human body and much of their efforts failed until 1951, when doctors in the Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore collected a cancerous tissue sample from a colored woman, Henrietta Lacks, without her consent. Her tissue sample is significant as it allowed scientists to conduct tests on human cells repeatedly without running out of stock, thereby cutting experimentation costs and enhancing the validity of test results as they were done on human cells instead of animal counterparts. Since then, the samples had been distributed for free all over the world, although some pharmaceutical companies made millions out of the products developed from testing them on Lacks’ cells. To avoid potential legal problems, the Hopkins administration decided to change Henrietta’s name to Helen Lane and called her cells, HeLa. Although HeLa has been used to advance studies in cancer, polio, influence, AIDs, and other diseases, Lacks never got the proper credit or compensation. After learning about Lacks in school and pursuing …show more content…
The film reveals that researchers and related companies alike must be responsible for following basic bioethics, especially in getting the consent of owners and explaining to them the range of their ownership rights as well as providing compensation for profiteering projects. Furthermore, public and private sectors must work in identifying and preventing bioslavery, particularly since it marginalizes colored and low-income people. Thus, we should remember Henrietta Lacks for her sacrifices by ensuring that biobanking yields more positive than negative effects on the owners of biological substances and humanity in
For three decades, scientists had been looking for human cells that could be successfully multiplied outside the human body and much of their efforts failed until 1951, when doctors in the Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore collected a cancerous tissue sample from a colored woman, Henrietta Lacks, without her consent. Her tissue sample is significant as it allowed scientists to conduct tests on human cells repeatedly without running out of stock, thereby cutting experimentation costs and enhancing the validity of test results as they were done on human cells instead of animal counterparts. Since then, the samples had been distributed for free all over the world, although some pharmaceutical companies made millions out of the products developed from testing them on Lacks’ cells. To avoid potential legal problems, the Hopkins administration decided to change Henrietta’s name to Helen Lane and called her cells, HeLa. Although HeLa has been used to advance studies in cancer, polio, influence, AIDs, and other diseases, Lacks never got the proper credit or compensation. After learning about Lacks in school and pursuing …show more content…
The film reveals that researchers and related companies alike must be responsible for following basic bioethics, especially in getting the consent of owners and explaining to them the range of their ownership rights as well as providing compensation for profiteering projects. Furthermore, public and private sectors must work in identifying and preventing bioslavery, particularly since it marginalizes colored and low-income people. Thus, we should remember Henrietta Lacks for her sacrifices by ensuring that biobanking yields more positive than negative effects on the owners of biological substances and humanity in