Henrietta Lack

Craig Bartholomaus
13113
16 March 2016 Essay 2: People Need Protection from Scientist
I recently finished reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack, a biography about Henrietta Lacks and how human tissue was taken without consent then used for medical research. Henrietta Lacks, was a colored woman, she was the daughter of a tobacco farmer, she came from a very poor, with very little education, she died from uremic poisoning, due to the treatment for cervical cancer October of 1951 at age 31. In January of 1951, Henrietta went to Johns Hopkins Hospital because she found a knot on her womb and was bleeding and had pain in her abdomen. Johns Hopkins is known for being the best research hospital around, but Henrietta did not go because

“Simple Definition of medical informed consent a formal agreement that a patient sign to give permission for a medical procedure (such as surgery) after having been told about the risks, benefits, etc. Full Definition of informed consent consent to surgery by a patient or to participation in a medical experiment by a subject after achieving an understanding of what is involved.” (merriam-webster Dictionary)
The first laws for informed consent was made in 1974 they called it the National Research Act. They the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. The job of the “Commission was to identify the basic ethical principles that should underlie the conduct of biomedical and behavioral research involving human subjects and to develop guidelines which should be followed to assure that such research is conducted in accordance with those principles.” (The National Commission for the Protection of Human

Doctors have been helping heal the sick since the begin of time, why where there not laws in place until 1974. Henrietta did not have the option, back in the 1951 when she first visited the hospital. In those days’ people were very uneducated especially colored people do to segregation, the majority believed and did whatever the doctors said. Henrietta race was very important at this time in history she was a colored woman. She was only treated in colored exam and procedure room in the hospital. When she died she was in the morgue she was placed in a freezer marked for color people. Her story might have been different if she was would have been a different race, we will never know.It was unfortunate that Henrietta was treated that way, the doctors at John Hopkins did horrible experiments and treated her based on her race and the fact that she was uneducated and poor just added to her pain and