The Importance Of Medical Experiments

Superior Essays
The looming thought of human experimentation was enough to deter some individuals from going to receive the medical care that they needed for their well-being. The thought that those that were trusted people in the medical field have the power to preform unethical experiments on them while they were in their care was enough to let them live with whatever ailment that they had. Several doctors abused the trust that was given to them for their own curiosities. Those curiosity driven procedures led to many medical discoveries, cures, and medications. However, what was best for the patient, or volunteer, was cast aside. During the 20th century, the fear of this happening was at an all-time high, due to all the medical advancements that were trying …show more content…
Henrietta trusted the medical system when she had abnormal bleeding when it was not time for her monthly cycle. The choice to go see a doctor altered the course of medicine forever. At the time of Henrietta going to John Hopkins, the drive to get cells to exist outside of the human body was at an all-time high. Medical researchers tried to get a multitude of different cell samples to live, but they all had the same fate. The cells that were taken from the human bodies all ended up dying. These cells were taken throughout different medical procedures and tasks, most without the consent of the individual they were taken from. Desires to find the solution to cells dying outside of the body lead to this form of human experimentation, stealing of cells. In the case of Henrietta Lack, her samples of cells were taken from her in the process of a treatment for cervical cancer. Two different samples were taken from Henrietta during that treatment, one of the cancer tumor, the other of her healthy cervix. The stolen cells from her ended up being the cells that the entire medical world was looking to try and get their hands on. Henrietta's cells were able to grow outside the body, while also being able to reproduce and grow into massive quantities. George Gey was scientist that discovered the growth of her cells. In this process of experimenting with the cells, he sent them around the world for other researchers to experiment with as well. Rebecca Skloot writes, "He sent shipments of HeLa cells to researchers in Texas, India, New York, Amsterdam, and many places between. Those researchers gave them to more researchers, who gave them to more still" (Skloot 57). Allowing for the spreading of these cells permitted that not only could Gey preform experiments on human cells, now anyone that had them

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