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August 1 was the 100th birthday of Henrietta Lacks, a black woman of little means whose cells are responsible for research resulting in medical breakthroughs. Cells from her could be one of the reasons that a COVID-19 vaccine is discovered. She lived in the Baltimore area in 1951 and was taken to John Hopkins Hospital, to a separate division for black patients, for treatment for cervical cancer. She died at the age of 31. Doctors at Hopkins took her cells to use for research without asking permission. Her cells never die when kept under proper conditions. They are called HeLa cells, the first two letters of her first and last names. These cells were different from other cells that researchers used for they replicated in an amazing fashion. They have been used in research all over the world and are still the cells that are used today by scientists. Some argue that she has given science and physicians the most important gift that they have ever received as her cells are responsible for many medical breakthroughs. Others refer to her as the Mother of Modern Research. The gift also became a driving force for bioethicists around the issue of consent. No one gave their consent to have these cells taken, including Henrietta Lacks or any members of her family.
We take for granted that each of us must give consent for any procedures that we have done by medical doctors or in clinical trial participation. We are told what will happen in the procedure, the side effects, the risks involved, and the expected outcome. When this occurs think of Henrietta Lacks and her gift of today’s requirement to consent all patients. Why hasn’t her name become a household word?
Rebecca Skloot revealed Henrietta Lacks story in her book, “The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks”, published on March 8, 2011. Skloot had difficulty getting permission from the family of Henrietta Lacks to write her book. This was due to mistrust of the medical establishment in the black community because of unethical trials have been perpetuated on black people in our nation where consent was not given. In the Tuskegee Experiment, sponsored by the U.S. Public Health Service, black men were experimented on to observe the progression of syphilis while withholding known treatment. Some died. Others gave the disease to their wives.
I had already read Skloot’s book when I was invited to attend a lecture by Rebecca Skloot addressing researchers, bioethicists, and physicians at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Several hundred people were present. There was standing room only. Skloot asked the audience how many in attendance had used Hela cells in their research. I was seated in the front of the room so I turned around to see every hand in the audience go up.
Medicine owes its progress to a little-known black woman who lived in an underserved community. Another example of Black Lives Matter intersecting with the Pandemi
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