In this style of science writing, we aimed to educate a secondary audience about cloning and genetic manipulation. The goal was to ease the audience about their skepticisms that rose after hearing about Planned Parenthood and their scandal over the use of unborn fetuses to harvest organs. Additionally, these individuals saw the documentary about Henrietta Lacks’ story and it capitalized over this audiences skepticism.
Cloning and Genetic Manipulation is the editing and creating of the human genome for various purposes. The successes of Cloning and Genetic Manipulation have led to better lives overall–full and healthy babies, or perfect 20/20 vision. However, according to Morales’ article Psychological aspects of human cloning and genetic manipulation: the identity and uniqueness of human beings, “Human cloning and stem cell research have fueled much professional and academic debate, strong reactions and controversy in society.” This modern success has been a process of trial and error, however, and would not be as successful without its failures.
In the past, scientists exploited an individual and her family–all for the purpose of synthesizing a cure. Henrietta Lacks was a black woman who had several malignant tumors. She was admitted into a hospital in Maryland, where scientist George Otto Gey will obtain her tissue sample. One of the workers who was assigned to Henrietta Lacks had cut a piece of her tissue for scientific use and gave the sample to Dr.Gey, who discovered that Lacks’ cells were “immortal”. Lacks’ cells possessed exceptional replicating properties. These cells would continue to duplicate without end. These cells would be determined by Gey to also be the foundation for discovering the cure to cancer. However, Gey knew he could not reveal that the cells belonged to the already deceased Henrietta Lacks. Aside from her being a black woman during the mid-20th century, Gey had already used her sample without permission and would surely receive a negative outcry from the people had this been the story told to the public. Instead, Gey named the cells after a fabricated individual- a white woman named Helen Lane in order to mask the true identity of the “HeLa” cell line. The immortal HeLa cells had been heavily sought after for years, with the proper credit never being given to the woman they were derived from or the family.
The fate of Henrietta Lacks’ and her family is without a doubt unfortunate. No one in her family had been compensated for the scientific breakthroughs that had come with the research on HeLa cells. Companies had been making use of the cell line to test cosmetic products for any adverse effects before selling their products. All of the use that HeLa cells had seen without any of the Lacks’ family line knowing, however, the breakthroughs were incredible. If not for the indirect sacrifice of Lacks, we may not have had any leads on how to cure cancer for good.
As contemporary people, we must keep in mind that the psyche of all people had been different in the 20th century compared to our way of thinking in the 21st century. Previously, black people had been visualized as subhuman compared to their white counterparts and as a result were treated as such. No one credited Lacks because in the mid-20th century, there wasn’t an urgency to give credit to a black person in the prevalently racist society that existed.
Today, people are conscious of what constitutes a human, independent of skin color. We should not have to worry about Lacks’ misfortune of being an exploited black woman again. Racism is not as prevalent in today’s society as it was in the 20th century, and black people are accepted as human instead of second class. Scientists cannot simply exploit black people for selfish gain without facing the proper consequences. Moreover, there are currently regulations in place that prohibit the inhumane exploitation of any people or the study of people without properly crediting the participants. We should not worry about Lacks’ situation happening again, because it cannot happen again given the current state of the contemporary world.
Planned Parenthood is most commonly known for being an abortion clinic. This facility carries out perhaps one of today’s most controversial procedures–abortions. The act of stopping the pregnancy process by removing a fetus before it can completely become a living baby is most notably why many people go to Planned Parenthood. However, many concerns have been raised about Planned Parenthood because of their alliance with a biotech company who they have been providing the unborn babies to in order to harvest organs. This biotech company had been conducting a form of cloning called Therapeutic Cloning where according to Savulescu’s article The Ethics of Cloning, “…involves using cloning processes to produce embryonic stem cells, tissues or whole organs for transplantation. The main ethical issues associated with therapeutic cloning are those relating to the creation and destruction of embryos.” This is sparking a negative outcry in the media in opposition to organ harvesting. Although ethics may be in question when harvesting organs is being considered, the method of harvesting organs can save lives of already living individuals. Scientists of the biotech company in alliance with Planned Parenthood are authorizing the killing of living aborted babies which is surely inhumane. Forcefully donating the organs of a lifeform who cannot decide for themselves should receive a negative outcry. In contrast, harvesting organs would never require a conscious person to donate ever again to save a loved one. We can reduce the death toll of people waiting on an organ donation who never live long enough to get one. At the cost of an aborted life, we can preserve an already existing life and eliminate the shortage on spare organs.
Cloning and Genetic Manipulation has had its skepticism justified for the repeated ethics violations being made. Cloning and Genetic Manipulation have had a history of exploitation which earns its negative image. However, with the foundation built with these scientific discoveries, we can save many lives by eliminating common threats to life such as organ shortages or malignant tumors that constantly plague our people.
Sources
Time Magazine. (2001). Retrieved from
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,1101010219,00.html
Savulescu, Julian. (2005). Retrieved from
The Medicine Publishing Company Ltd.
Morales, Nestor Micheli. (2009). Retrieved from
Reproductive BioMedicine Online; www.rbmonline.com/Article/3974
The Shocking Experiments Done on Henrietta Lacks. Retrieved from
