ipl-logo

Was Henrietta Lacks Be Allowed

656 Words3 Pages

Is it right for one's life to be manipulated for the use of scientific research or is it just a evasion on the person's privacy. Henrietta Lacks was a African American with cells that intrigued many people, she was diagnosed with cancer leaving her to be cared for at her local hospital, where she would later die due to the extremity of the illness. While at the hospital she was unaware that the doctors there were experimenting on her taking cell samples from her body, to help find a resolution to multiple diseases. The people who examined Henrietta manipulated her and the rest of her family to gain information on her cellular structure to be ahead of others looking to achieve the same objective. Henrietta Lacks cells should have never been evaluated because it's an evasion of her freedom, a danger to her personal health, and cause conflicts. First of all, Henrietta was never told that many scientists were undergoing experiments on her because of her unusual cells, this was kept a secret to prevent her from ever refusing the experiments. While going through a cancer procedure a doctor Telinde who was working on her never mentioned anything about getting samples, “no one had told Henrietta that Telinde was …show more content…

The pain was colossal to her “Henrietta’s body was almost entirely taken over by tumors. They’d blocked her intestines and made her belly swell” (Skloot 83). Ultimately, her body was responding in a negative way due to doctors trying to test her cells by putting he in contact with radium a radioactive material that is deadly. Making someone go through excruciating pain just to test out their body capabilities is an inhumane way to help try to solve other illnesses. In the long run, putting someone's life at risk by inflicting pain is not the right step in the right direction to cure all

Open Document