October is black history month, a month for all to look back, look forward, and learn. As a white individual, I have a moral, legal and personal duty to do what I can and use my privilege to educate myself and others to reduce systemic racism, an issue which is still extremely prevalent in 21st-century society. 

Last June, I discovered a part of Black History I had never been taught: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a book examining the story of the HeLa cells. I stumbled across this while taking a Harvard Law Course on Bioethics during lockdown, and perhaps, I would never have learned about her story without the course. This seems astounding to me now, as Henrietta Lacks is a massive part of scientific history, proving how racism seeps through science and medicine. 

Henrietta Lacks was a poor, black tobacco farmer growing up in Southern Virginia. In 1951, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer at the young age of 30. At this point, Lacks was living in Baltimore, and due to racial segregation could only be treated in one hospital: John Hopkins. Here, the doctor, before treating her for cancer, cut a small part of her tumour and put this in a dish, without Lacks’ knowledge. Already – you can see the problem. This tissue was sent to George Gey, the head of tissue culture research at the hospital, who had been trying to grow human cells outside of the body for decades, with no success. 

However, quickly, Gey realised that Lacks’ cells were not dying. They started to explode, doubling their numbers every 24 hours, and taking over his lab, they became known as HeLa cells. Before long, Lacks’ cells were all over the world, and individual facilities were set up to breed them. These cells were arguably one of the most important advances to happen to medicine. They were used for all sorts of medical discoveries in space and to develop vaccines for polio and HPV. 

Lacks died just before her 31st birthday, due to the intensity of her cell growth which spread her cancer at a rapid pace. No one in her family was aware of the research and the widespread value of her cells, which were now all over the world. 

It wasn’t until the 1970s that the Lacks family discovered what was going on with the HeLa cells. One scientist, Victor McKusick, decided to track down the family to try and learn more about the cells. The family had a limited education, therefore did not quite understand the situation and that caused an enormous communication breakdown. Research done on the family was not even of proper value as a result of this, seen through Rebecca Skloot’s interview with Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah Lacks. Soon after the interview, Deborah died. Her health was completely destroyed as a result of heritable conditions. For a privileged member of society, this would never have happened. It is arguable that had the cells come of a rich, well-educated white male, the family would have known, there would have been early diagnosis and treatment for the heritable conditions, and Deborah’s chance of survival would have been much higher. 

Therefore, we can see that the case of Henrietta Lacks leaves some seriously important ethical and legal concerns. Technically, the situation was not against any laws or prevailing ethical standards at the time, and in fact, was standard practice in 1951. At this point, scientists had no idea that cells could even be worth money, and there was no consent procedure or requirement in place. Thus, no law was technically broken. However, the way her family were treated was not ethical, given that by the 1970s consent requirements were in place. There are definitely grounds to argue that had the family been white, and highly educated, they would have been treated quite differently, and thus it can definitely be presumed that race and class played a very significant role in the situation. 

The Lacks case raises important moral issues about how a black family were so badly mistreated by the medical system, completely left out of a huge medical discovery that directly affected their family. The fact I didn’t even hear about the case until 69 years after the original cells were taken (granted, I’ve only been alive for 21 of those years – but I am a law student), makes me feel sick as to how my white privilege has shielded me from such an important story.

The problems of racism, classism and sexism are essential to understanding the narrative of what happened to Henrietta Lacks. The social circumstances that led to the way Lacks’ cells were retrieved, and how her family were treated following her death, with regard to the HeLa cells prove the existence of systemic racism in the US healthcare system. Given these circumstances, it is hard to imagine the same happening to a white person. 

While the treatment was standard, this was the Jim Crow era, and Lacks was treated on a ward segregated for black individuals. The only reason she was at the hospital was that she was a black woman with low finances. Lacks may not have been targeted because she was black, but it is hard to imagine that in 1950s America, race did not have a part to play. I highly doubt that the same would have happened to anyone, given the web of racism gripping the US at the time. 

Racism is enshrined in the Lacks’ story. In order for the world to improve on the pressing issue of systemic racism, we must all learn Henrietta and her family’s story, a crucial part of Black History which arguably, goes unnoticed by many of us.