The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

In her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot reveals how Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman diagnosed with cervical cancer, was exploited by the medical community for the development of the immortal “HeLa” cells that have since become the most widely used cells for medical research and advancement from the 20th century to the present day. The HeLa cells have since led to the formulation of the polio vaccination along with groundbreaking research on diseases such as AIDS, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and possible treatments for various forms of cancer in humans (Zielinski). However, this breach of medical ethics in regards to removing Lacks’ cervical cells without her knowledge or consent has led to questions

Chester Southam, the chief virologist at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, is just one of many examples of the great lengths those in the medical profession were willing to go in order to prove the effectiveness of the HeLa cancer cells. Southam and his contemporaries theorized that cancer was caused by either a virus or an immune deficiency, and in order to test this hypothesis he subsequently injected four hundred cancer patients with HeLa cells to study their biological reaction. Although his intentions were admirable in discovering the underlying causes for such a deadly disease, Southam consciously deceived his patients, telling them that “he was testing their immune systems; he said nothing about injecting them with someone else’s malignant cells.” The results proved disastrous for some of the patients that were injected with the cells with one patient’s report stating, “Henrietta’s cells metastasized” (Skloot, 128). After reviewing the results of the cancer patients, Southam then decided to test the HeLa cells on six hundred other patients awaiting gynecologic surgery, telling them that he was “testing them for cancer” (Skloot,

Jeremy Bentham, the 18th century founder of modern utilitarianism, reveals the inner flaws of humanity’s need to justify their actions with the end result, noting that man does not seek to answer ethical questions such as “Can they reason?, nor Can they talk?, but rather Can they suffer?” (Encyclopedia Britannica). Although society ultimately benefits from the development of HeLa, the immoral practices that were the foundation for such advancement cannot be simply overshadowed by the reward that came from it. If such an assertion was considered valid, then the actions of the Nazi physicians that committed such unspeakable crimes could also be justified by their goals of racial purity and societal security. Any of the research collected for the promotion of the HeLa cells was capable of being administered without the violation of human dignity and informed consent. The life and death of Henrietta Lacks is a cautionary tale that reflects the inherent contradiction between the stated purpose of medical research to provide benefit to humankind and the reality of blatant profiteering in the name of the advancement of