What Ethical Issues Does 'The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks' Raise?

2025-07-01 01:07:03 244

3 Answers

Kara
Kara
2025-07-03 00:26:07
Reading 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' made me confront the dark side of medical progress. Henrietta's cells were taken without her knowledge or consent, used for groundbreaking research that earned billions, while her family lived in poverty. This raises huge questions about patient rights—how can hospitals claim ownership over someone's body parts? The book shows how racism played a role too; doctors assumed they could take from a Black woman without consequences. It's not just history either—modern biotech companies still profit from tissues donors unknowingly provide during surgeries. The Lacks family's fight for recognition exposes how science often ignores the people behind its breakthroughs.
Ingrid
Ingrid
2025-07-05 20:38:21
this book haunted me for weeks. The ethical violations are staggering—Henrietta's cells (HeLa) revolutionized medicine, yet her family couldn't afford insurance. Informed consent wasn't just missing; it was never even considered standard until decades later. The racism is systemic: Black patients in the 1950s were routinely treated as disposable test subjects. What chills me is how current laws still allow discarded tissues to be commercialized. The NIH's 2013 agreement with the Lacks family was a step forward, but it doesn't erase the exploitation.

The book forces us to ask where we draw lines today. CRISPR, organoids, AI-driven drug discovery—all rely on human biological data. Who controls it? Henrietta's story proves that without strict ethical frameworks, marginalized communities will always bear the costs of scientific 'progress.' I now advocate for patient education programs so no one else becomes an unwitting contributor to billion-dollar industries.
Uriah
Uriah
2025-07-06 11:48:21
This book tore me apart as a Black reader. Henrietta wasn't some abstract case—she was a real woman whose life was reduced to 'HeLa cells' in textbooks. The ethics go beyond consent; it's about erasure. Her children grew up seeing their mother's cells in labs worldwide while being treated like nuisances when they asked questions. The medical industry built monuments from her DNA but let her descendants struggle to pay hospital bills.

What guts me is how little has changed. Indigenous groups fight against unauthorized DNA sampling, poor mothers sign vague forms during stressful births, and ancestry companies sell genetic data. 'Immortal Life' isn't just history—it's a warning. We need narratives that center the humans behind medical miracles, not just the science. After reading, I sought works like 'Medical Apartheid' to understand the full scope of these injustices. Henrietta's legacy demands we rethink who benefits from breakthroughs—and who gets left behind.
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