Ethics In The Tuskegee Experiment

“Participation by individuals capable of giving informed consent as subjects in medical research must be voluntary” (Ethics in Medical Research and Publication 2). This was a clear violation in ethics by taking Henrietta’s cells, but at the time racism was still alive and the doctors were a lot less ethical considering all the ethical violations in the medical field happening at this time. The HeLa cell line developed from her cells was estimated at a whopping 3 billion dollars, and none goes to the family. The family is struggling to afford their own medical care while companies are still profiting off their mother. Even with all this hardship put on the family some good has come out of this malicious act such as when HeLa cells were used to test vaccines for polio saving millions or when telomerase ,an enzyme used to fix DNA, allowed scientists to test anti-cancerous drugs that would have killed normal cells (Popular Science, pars.

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.

Tuskegee Airmen Have you ever wanted to know what it is like to be in mid air warfare? That is what the Tuskegee Airmen did. They were one of the best Airmen the U.S ever had. They flew during World War II and protected U.S bombers. They were one of the most accomplished Airmen and Gunmen the U.S ever had.

2015 Read and Response: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Throughout the Lacks’ family history there has been nothing more but absence of information and deceitfulness. The prolonged journey of finding out who exactly Deborah’s mother was and how she changed science was all but easy. One of the most common messages throughout the book was the conflict between individual rights and scientific exploration from high, authoritative figures such as scientists, doctors and the research community.

In “The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man”, the unnamed narrator moved to Europe with the millionaire to be his personal musician. The narrator experienced the social environment of a wealthy white person while they travelled from country to country. The narrator parts company with the millionaire and moves back to America. On his way back to America he meets “The Doctor” who is a dignified African American doctor, who is a graduate of Stanford University. When the unnamed narrator and the doctor start talking the topic of race is brought up, the doctor suggests that the African American community is progressing.

The experimentation of human cell culture has been a familiar scientific practice for many years; it has helped develop the polio vaccine, tested the infection of several viruses in humans, and has been used to further research on cancer, AIDs, and the effects of radiation. Despite these seemingly miraculous developments in science, many are unfamiliar with the woman behind these discoveries: Henrietta Lacks. In her novel, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot investigates the life of Henrietta Lacks, a poor African-American tobacco farmer diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951. Her cells, which were found to be “immortal” (continuously growing in cell culture), were extracted without her consent, and have become one of the

All four of these ethical principles were questioned and disregarded in the Tuskegee Syphilis

In the 1950’s black children received an education inferior to the education white children received. Consequently, to emphasize the lack of education black people of the time received, “Doctors knew best, and most patients didn’t question that,” Skloot used pathos to elicit emotions of sympathy from readers, “Many black patients were just lucky to be getting treatment, since discrimination in hospitals was widespread” (Skloot 64). Skloot revealed the gullibility of black people that the white people had conditioned them to think due to their lack of education. The white people had conditioned the black people to believe that if they received any treatment or diagnosis, they should consider themselves lucky. Skloot used pathos to make readers feel sympathy for black people in the 1950’s because they did not deserve unequal treatment.

Scientific research has undergone a transformation from knowing little about cells to experimenting on the cells and advance in medicine. The fascination to discover the unknown has triggered scientists to unconsciously over-step ethical boundaries. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot (2010) elaborates on the legal unethical practices in 1951 in the United States and the standard medical practices during the Jim Crow era. The policies and regulations have structurally created disparities among the African American population leading to skepticism towards the healthcare system.

But unfortunately, the experiment was also never clearly explained to them, they had thought it was just the best possible treatment expected to cure the sickness they might have had. Many unethical practices were evident in this study, in this case, the most important one was informed consent, which is a consent given by a patient to a doctor for treatment with full knowledge of the possible risks and benefits. None of the participants in the Tuskegee study

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.

Researchers of the Tuskegee study clearly targeted and capitalized on a group of participants who did not have sufficient education and did not have a good socioeconomic standing to make a knowledgeable decision whether to participate in the study or not. Education on its own is one of the crucial aspects for individuals to make knowledgeable and educated decisions. The lack of either standard created a perfect setting for researchers to exploit the low social standing of the African- Americans men in the Tuskegee study. In addition, African-American men were coerced and misled to participate by promises of incentives such as “free lunches, transportation and medical care” (ref. Tuskegee Study article).

However, this is only an idealization and isn’t true. Cases of unethical human experimentation in Holmesburg Prison, Crownsville State Hospital, and the Tuskegee Institute prove that the

The first questionable statement within this article begins at the title; in bold words, it states “[w]hat happens when white men are scared of blacks.” By implying that the reaction of all “white men” will be the same, it sets up a hasty generalization. In addition, the inconsistent classification of people by skin color can be easily seen as offensive: rather than calling “blacks” black men, they are simply referred to as the abbreviate term “blacks.” From the title alone, the author portrays a bias attitude towards his topic; consequently, the suggestive and broad potential of the article entices me to read more despite its fallacies. As the story continues, the term “white man” occurs more frequently than any direct name, indicating that the author wants to maintain the hasty generalization portrayed in the title.

Racism is still immensely prevalent in today’s medical field. No matter which way society spins it, people are racist, sexist, and homophobic to everyone who does not look or act exactly like them. Doctors are the people in this world who are supposed to help everyone. They’re here to save lives,