Every human being has different views on what is ethical and what is not, however as a society there is a general understanding of what is considered ethical. This “general understanding” is constantly being molded to conform to the changes in society. The 1950s was a time where there was still a great deal of racism against blacks in the United States. For that reason, mistreatment of African Americans wasn’t considered unethical at the time, it was simply considered the norm. The Jim Crow laws were still in place at that time, they were laws which basically treated African Americans as “separate but equal”. African Americans had separate public commodities such as water fountains and bathrooms. These commodities were usually in worse shape than the ones for whites, leading to whites feeling superior. Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman who lived through this time period, she not only was discriminated against for being African American but also for being a woman. Henrietta Lacks’ cells were taken without her knowledge when she was getting treatment for her cervical cancer, which she later died of.
