You may not know her name but chances are, you've probably met part of her. Henrietta Lacks, living in the south in the mid-twentieth century became a donor of the world's first and only immortal cellular line, under rather unfortunate circumstances. With very little income and being born black in the segregated south Pre-Civil Rights movement, Henrietta had a lot stacked against her, even in the medical community. Doctors were trying to culture cells at the time Henrietta visited a clinic for treatment only to later learn she had vicious cancer and that doctors took cells from it, profited from it and she had no idea as her cancer got worse and worse.
We don't like to think about doctors sneakily taking without asking and not being upfront and honest with us because that is a terribly scary thought, and after all, today we have informed consent, which was virtually nonexistent when Henrietta needed it. Even though we have it, informed consent only works when doctors are accurately informed themselves or honestly informing us, and that doesn't always happen even today.
You may have heard something about a recent controversy over the Gardasil vaccine, a new preventative measure against HPV and cervical cancer that has killed young girls and boys across the country. What rings particularly sour about it is that Henrietta's immortal cell line is used to this day, and no doubt used to make this vaccine, as the cancer cells from Henrietta's body that survive in cultures to this day are cervical cancer cells. The American Cancer Society reports that approximately 13,000 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer this year, making it one of the most uncommon cancers today thanks to frequent Pap tests. One of the lead creators of Gardasil, Dr. Diane Harper, reported that there is very little reason for this vaccine as with early detection HPV and cervical cancer can be treated quite effectively and there is no clinical research that shows this vaccine actually works. In fact, it might do the exact opposite, and this kind of misinformation is nothing new.
Doctors didn't tell Henrietta or her family what was going on with her body or that her cells continued to live on long after she died, and developers of Gardasil didn't tell the public nearly anything about the extreme risks involved with the vaccination or the deaths caused by it until very recently. This shocked the medical community, but given their past activities, it really shouldn't be too surprising.
In America, we have a healthcare system that is to this day is still grossly stacked against the public. While companies seek profit alone, people die. We need to make pharmaceutical companies and the medical industry into an industry of genuine care instead of profit. If people do not seek to change the system then, that only perpetuates the damage done by them over the centuries. Henrietta Lacks died in 1951 and her cells were already revolutionizing the medical field and scientific community, but many people still have no idea who she was, or what she unknowingly did for millions of people. Her cells have reaped enormous benefits for the world (you can find out everything about her and her cells in her biography and you really, really should).The sad reality is that her story feels so far away, but because pharmaceutical companies like those involved in developing Gardasil might not accurately report to anyone, doctors can't or might not accurately report to patients and more people will die in ignorance like Henrietta and hundreds of Gardasil recipients or be scarred for life like thousands of recipients of Gardasil who lived but still endure adverse effects of the vaccination. This is an old story, but it's time we did something new about it.
