In “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot, occasions where someone tricks or lies to another person in order to achieve a goal can be seen everywhere. For example, this tension between scientific progress and privacy can be encountered in the situation of Moore and Golde.
Who Said You Can Sell My Spleen?
Moore was a surveyor who suffered from severe hair-cell leukemia. He was referred to Golde, a cancer researcher at UCLA, who eventually removed his spleen to cure his cancer. Upon recovery, Moore was asked to return to LA for his spleen follow-ups, when in fact, Golde was taking his bone marrow, blood, and semen for experiments without consent. When Moore started to question why he couldn’t have just done these follow-ups at his home back in Seattle, Golde even offered the flight tickets and hotel in order to continue his research.
See Also: David Moore Committed Suicide
It was finally after 7 years of his surgery that Moore began to realize that something’s wrong. He was handed a consent form asking him to give permission to the University of California all rights associated with his blood and bone marrow.
“John Moore | HeLa Term Project” via Hela Term Project
“Moore asked Golde whether any of the follow-up work he was doing had commercial value. According to Moore, Golde said no, but Moore circled ‘do not’, just in case” (200).
“Soon the same form appeared in Moore’s mailbox at home with a sticker that said ‘Circle I do'” (200). Whilst Moore was trying to figure out all that’s going on with his cells, Golde filed for a patent on Moore’s cells. This Mo cell line eventually got Golde into an agreement with a biotech company that granted him millions of dollars to commercially develop and scientifically investigate this valuable cell line.
Golde manipulated his power to conduct wrongdoings that go against morality. Even during the 1900s where consent and permission weren’t officially ruled by law, it was still considered ethically incorrect. Moore was deeply hurt when he found out the truth.
“All of a sudden I was not the person Golde was putting his arm around, I was Mo, I was the cell line, like a piece of meat” (201).
1900s-2017
Situations where people lied on someone else to achieve their own goal, can be seen in media nowadays as well. In the popular Netflix series “Riverdale“, Hermione Lodge lied on Fred Andrews into winning the land rights of the reconstruction site in order to gain underground profits for the Lodge Industries behind his back.
“Hermione and Fred have a history” by Anjelica Oswald via Insider
April 22, 2019 at 10:56 am
Hello Curie, your connection between Riverdale and TILOHL was so surprising! It made a lot of sense because both of these deceivements caused a lot of harm between both the parties involved and the people who were around those deceived. Archie and Veronica were both extremely hurt after the lies were discovered, even though neither of them actually were apart of it. They probably were experiencing the same effects as Moores family or the Lacks. Do you think they were experiencing the same things as the Lacks/Moore families?
April 22, 2019 at 7:04 pm
Hello Curie,
I found your connection between Riverdale and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks really interesting and unexpected! It is not a common connection that you can see. I think your connection made total sense after you explained it. However, I do think sometimes it is okay to lie to others to achieve a goal. For instance, if you are hosting a surprise party for a friend, you would like in order to hide it from her. As a result, I do think we should consider every variable before jumping to the conclusion that lying is a bad thing. Do you agree with such a point?
-Sandy