How Did Henrietta Lacks Use Ethical Testing For African Americans Unethical

In the nineteenth and twentieth century new ideas of science were being put in place to help treat different diseases. Scientist did not know about how the human body operated and what caused certain illnesses, so they needed subjects to test in order to diagnose illnesses. In the book, Night Doctor’s, Skloot communicates to an African-American family to gain insight on an individual who contributed largely to research. Henrietta Lacks had cancer and the doctors noticed that there was something special about her cells. Henrietta died and they took her cells to help treat blindness, polio, and learn about cancer. The Lacks family did not trust the research doctors for not receiving their consent upon taking her cells. In addition, the doctors at Hopkins hospital were doing this to many African-American families. They were called “night doctors” because African-Americans believed they kidnapped African Americans at night, so they could do research on their bodies. New cases up to the end of the twentieth century surfaced stating that Hopkins Hospital were running unethical test on African-American

The children are put in danger in order to advance research on the effects of lead. African-Americans during the nineteenth and twentieth century were looked at as less than human beings. The doctors did not believe they needed to get consent about the dangers of performing experiments on African-Americans as unethical. For example, the Tuskegee experiment was unethical, but the doctors wanted to find the effects of syphilis, but with black men and women as test subjects to benefit Caucasians. The Lacks family did not get to understand the significance of what their beloved family member meant to future development of scientist. Nor did the black families exposed to lead. Scientist to know what they know today has benefited millions and their legacies are passed on as break-throughs in