Summary Of The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lack

There are over 100 million animals harmed in US research labs every year. Ninety- two percent of the tests conducted on animals do not actually work when used on people (animal testing). Why use animals at all when researchers can just use humans...incarsaterated humans. In the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” researchers used HeLa cells on men in prison to test the effects of the cells in the human body. Chester Southam put an ad in the Ohio State Penitentiary newsletter for twenty-five volunteers for HeLa cells research. Within a few days Southam had one hundred and fifty people willing to participate in his trial. There were many reasons as to why the men participated in the trial. A prisoner that took part in the HeLa trial stated

“The Article Exploitation of prisoners in clinical research: perceptions of study participants” written by Paul Christopher states “Given the history of and continued potential for prisoner exploitation, biomedical research should be permitted only if there is a strongly favorable benefit-risk ratio for the prisoner.” Even though Henrietta Lacks was not in a clinical trial she did not receive all the information from her Doctors which led to her downfall. This lack of information not only hurt her but it also hurt her family. The worst part yet Henrietta and her family were not the only ones who were lied to because Chester Southam not only used prisoners for research but he used hospitalized people. He told the patients that he was checking their immune system when in fact he was injecting them with HeLa cells. “The Article Exploitation of prisoners in clinical research: perceptions of study participants” stated that “all but 1 participant agreed that there should be more research studies for prisoners to join if they wanted to.” To prevent something like this from happening again researchers must be monitored at all times by someone who is not included in the making of the trial or drug. There also need to be monthly reviews of the research and if there anything wrong then the trial should be shut down until further notice. As long as this crucial step is followed then

By allowing prisoners to take part in clinical trials researchers can reduce medical mistakes when testing a new drug. Prisoners are perfect for trials because everyone that partakes in the trial is different so researchers can see how that drug would react to certain races,genders, and age groups. Prisoner are in a controlled environment so researchers would not have to worry about the prisoners daily routine or diet. By using prisoners researchers can see how the medication would react with other medications that some of the clinical trial participants take. It would be easy for the government to watch over the clinical trials going on in the prison. Prisoners would be able to get all the information they needed. Animals would no longer have to go through pain and suffering and taxpayers could finally pay for something that is more beneficial for them. As long as the phases are followed and as long as the prisoners are treated with respect then they would be qualified for the job as a volunteer clinical trial