In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, there was a great finding that was found in Henrietta’s body. It was one of the most significant discoveries that largely helped the human’s medical to move a big step forward from the past. The discovery is named “Hela cells” and this was originally found in Henrietta’s body. Although this discovery made a huge and positive impact on human society, there was still some unethical action between it.
George Gey was the first person that found the Hela cells directly from Henrietta’s body. However, as the book stated, “Henrietta knew nothing about her cells growing in a laboratory”(Skloot, 42). It shows how George Gey did not ask for any consent from Henrietta before taking her cell into a laboratory for further investigation. Moreover, Gey decided to give these samples freely to all scientists all over the world to help to prove the cell’s functions. Henrietta Lacks still knew nothing about it even after she died by the reason of aggressive cancer.
I believed what George Gey has done was unethical and considered inhumane. This totally violates one’s privacy and most importantly, he did it for the purpose to benefit himself so he can work on further observations about the cells. However, all of what George did have not to get any consent from either Henrietta or the Lacks family. Although he made a significant discovery and contribution to the human medical society, the issue still more towards the moral aspect of a person should not publicly release one’s private information and should be considered unethical and illegal in nowadays.
It reminds me of a comedy movie called “Inside Out”. In the movie, there are 4 emotions that are transformed into characters that help to control the overall brain emotion in different circumstances. However, in some scenes, “anger” also tries to manipulate and take over the whole situation as he did not ask for any consent of other emotions and directly make his call right away. It shows the action of how someone ignores others and attempting to achieve something that benefits themselves more than others.
