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The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

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In the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was mentioned. Throughout Henrietta’s time of being sick with cervical cancer, she was not told she had the disease. Scientists took samples of Henrietta’s cells and brought them to the prestigious Tuskegee Institute for further study (Skloot pg. 23). It was at this same institute that the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was performed. The U.S Public Health Service Team Department was the one to sponsor the study (Batten). This particular study was done to see the different effects syphilis had on African American males. Throughout this study, there were many things that were done unethically and took many years to be made known. The Tuskegee syphilis study took place at the highly known Tuskegee Institute College, in Alabama in 1932. The PHS (Public Health Service) department recruited local doctors and nurses who would not treat the men with syphilis (Clinton). They had white physicians within their department administer the study (Batten). There were 400 …show more content…

Several doctors who participated in the study continued to justify the experiment.Dr. J. R. Heller, who on one occasion had referred to the test subjects as the "Ethiopian population,"(Brandt). This sounds potentially racist. In 1997, Bill Clinton finally issued his apology to the African Americans and also the federal government, Only 8 out of the 399 participants who had syphilis were still alive (Clinton). Bill Clinton spoke of the mistrust and racial animus to a group of survivors and said theses words, “We can look you in the eye and finally say on behalf of the American people, what the United States government did was shameful, and I am sorry” (Clinton).The surviving people were given $37,500, members of the control group were given $16,000, and each control subject received $5,000. The government is making sure to stop the disease so it does not end as a catastrophic event

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a book that includes her biography, then her childhood to her tragic death; the story of her family over various decades; Skloot’s research and her relationship with the Lacks family, especially Deborah; and the story of the HeLa cells. Henrietta Lacks was known by scientists as HeLa was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951, and then became one of the most important tools in medicine. They were necessary for the development of the polio vaccine, cloning, and much more scientific developments. A doctor at Johns Hopkins took a piece of her tumor without her consent and then sent it down to scientists who been trying to grow tissues in culture for decades. Henrietta's

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Black patients were usually denied access to medical care, and many doctors thought that black patients were inferior to whites. Henrietta was treated at Johns Hopkins for her cervical cancer where she recieved below-average medical care due to her race. Though the hospital was one of the few that even allowed African American patients, it was known for conducting unethical experiments on their patients. Henrietta’s medical records would later reveal her doctors never told her the true severerity of her cancer, and also the fact that they were taking her cells for research purposes. In the words of Rebecca Skloot, “Henrietta knew nothing about her cells growing in a laboratory.

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Henrietta Lacks, the “Patient” HeLa cells made history beyond polio vaccines and outer space experiments. In Rebecca Skloot’s bestseller, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” HeLa cells went beyond just the successful research, cures, and treatments - they told the story of the Lacks family, and the unethical behaviors in the medical field of the 1950s. Henrietta Lacks was treated as a research subject, rather than just as a patient. Her physicians unethically withheld information relating to informed consent, and uses of her biospecimen, while sharing her private information. They ignored her rights of voluntary choice, disrespected her confidentiality, and lacked communication with both her, and her family, discriminating against her race.

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In contrast, some proponents of the PHS decision may argue that the study provided valuable insights into the natural progression of syphilis and informed subsequent medical practices. They contend that the lengthy nature of the study provided a unique opportunity to observe the disease’s evolution over time, including its various stages, which may not have been possible by other means. However, while acknowledging these potential contributions, it is essential to recognize that the purported benefits of the Tuskegee Study must be weighed against its profound shortcomings and the harm inflicted upon its participants. The knowledge gained from the study could arguably have been obtained through ethically sound research methods that prioritize the well-being of participants. The ends cannot justify the means when the means involve the violation of ethical principles and the promotion of harm and injustice.

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The scientists and media that did not know the name Henrietta Lacks but knew the name of the cell line HeLa showed the disregard Scientists had for the Lacks family. In 1951, poor African American women named Henrietta lacks discovered what she thought was a “knot in her stomach” that turned out to be cervical cancer. Doctors thought they could take a few cells from Henrietta without her consent or

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The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (TSE) in Macon county, Alabama started in 1932 with a team of doctors and nurses, Dr. Raymond A. Vonderlehr, Dr. Eugene Gribble, and Nurse Eunice Rivers from the United States Public Health Service and the Tuskegee Institute set out to relieve the Syphilis epidemic in the rural black populations in America. Nearly 500 African-American people entered this study expecting to be treated and instead, about 128 died due to Syphilis and Syphilis related complications and hundreds more were prevented from receiving treatment – penicillin - for forty years when funding ran out. Syphilis as a disease is incredibly destructive, it is sexually or congenitally transmitted by the bacteria Treponema pallidum its initial symptoms

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The Tuskegee Syphilis study disregarded the health of African American men, targeted these men because of their ethnicity and lack of education and withheld an effective treatment from these men in an effort to continue the study. Also, these men were not provided with information concerning the study and this inhibited their right to make the conscious decision to participate. The Stanford Prison Experiment failed to minimize harm to the participants. The prisoners were mistreated, degraded, humiliated and endured severe emotional and psychological distress. The experiment ended after six

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The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was an infamous time of violations against African Americans. From 1932-1972, a study that was conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service was brought to research the effects of untreated syphilis in Black men in Macon County, Alabama. 600 men were enrolled in the study, and 399 of them had syphilis; they were the experimental group. An experimental group is a group that receives the variable, which in this case is the syphilis. The control group is the group that doesn 't receive the test variable, so the experimental group can be compared to the control group.

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This experiment would prove scientifically that both blacks and whites are affected by syphilis the same way. It’s debatable if the experiment done was humane or not, however many would agree that it most certainly was not humane.

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1. Racism and Research: The Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study is an article written by Allen M. Brandt in 1978. In this article, Brandt wants to show that the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was not serious studied about the syphilis, but it was revealed more about racism. He said that, “Failure to place the study in a historical context also made it impossible for the investigation to deal with the essentially racist nature of the experiment” (Brandt). Thus, his quote just showed the offensiveness that racism was created in the society.

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The Tuskegee study of Untreated Syphilis began in 1932, mainly designed to determine the history of untreated latent syphilis on 600 African American men in Tuskegee, Alabama. 201 out of 600 men were non-syphilitic just unknowingly involved in the study as a control group This study is known to be “the most infamous biomedical research study in the U.S history”. Most of these men had never visited a doctor and they had no idea what illness they had. All of the men agreed to be a participant thinking they were being treated for “bad blood” and plus they were given free medical care and meals.

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In the year of 1932, in a small town in Alabama called Macon County began a study that was lead by the U.S Public Health Services (PHC) to study the development of untreated syphilis. The U.S Public Health Services gathered 399, African American men that were in the late stage of syphilis. The study also gathered 201 African American men who were free of the disease chosen to serve as controls. The total number of African American men in the study was 600 victims. Throughout the study many illegal things happened and the victims were not given the full truth of what was happening and what was going to happen.

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The Tuskegee Syphillis Study, the Nazi scientific experiments on Prisoners of War during the Second World War are all extreme cases that exaggerate the need for an ethical approach with regard to health. The argument behind conspiracy theories is that diseases may be man made for purpose of experimentation or scientism for the acquisition of knowledge. Other than the immoral and unethical implications as highlighted by these studies, the need for absolute permeability to access treatment is highlighted This is particularly salient in the Tuskegee Syphillis Study in which the sample was not treated for the disease. Although the issues have been debated and opaque nature of seeking treatment has been debunked, there still exists several several factors which prevents persons from seeking treatment which may be rooted in fear of stigmatization, prejudice and/ or discrimination. This is especially the case with sexually transmitted diseases and sexually transmitted infection, where cultures portray sex as taboo.

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One of the many case examples is the Tuskegee syphilis trials that exploited African American men for the use of extensive research purposes. The researchers that were studying untreated syphilis were aware that the African Americans participating in the studied lacked the knowledge to understand what a true clinical study was. They were told that they were receiving free American healthcare, and were not disclosed to the information that they were, in fact, being studied and monitored to find a cure for syphilis. The researchers acted upon the participant’s ignorance to gain insight into syphilis and as stated by Allan Brandt, “When penicillin became widely available in the early 1950’s as the preferred treatment for syphilis, the men did not receive therapy. In fact on several occasions, the USPHS actually sought to prevent treatment”.

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This study was referred to as the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis

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