Profit Driven Medical Industries Intended and Unintended Actions

Categories: George Gey Rebecca Skloot The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

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The medical field is composed of some of the most intelligent people. Despite this intelligence, most medical professionals do not take into consideration the consequences their research has on the various people involved. Henrietta Lacks was a poor, uneducated black woman who was diagnosed with cervical cancer at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Medical specialists flocked in and out of her examination room in an effort to conclude the best course of treatment for Henrietta. Upon her signing a consent form, Henrietta was rushed into surgery where Doctor George Gey extracted a tissue sample from Henrietta's cervix.

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This tissue sample was named HeLa, and is the first immortal cell network. HeLa is important in finding cures for HIV, cancer, polio, and numerous other diseases. Not knowing Gey took a sample from her cervix, Henrietta returned home from surgery and passed away weeks later. These profit driven medical industries, like the one where Henrietta received treatment, are credited only with curing and researching disease.

Contrary to this, these medical industries unintentionally affect much more than the patients wellbeing. The murky intentions of these medical institutions raise an important question- what are the intended and unintended consequences of profit driven medical industries?

Altogether, profit driven medical industries may intentionally strive to make immense profit off various advancements. These medical industries intentionally prioritize making profits and being a profit-centric industry . For example, the National Foundation of Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) hired many doctors, including George Guy, who considered the cell culturist field a “gold mine” (Skloot, 2010, p.

94). The recognition of this medical field as a gold mine emphasizes that the medical industries consider the monetary value of their advancements prior to contemplating other issues. Additionally, cell culturists around the world, who work at profit driven medical industries, were paid “$50 million ..so they could find a way to mass produce cells” (Skloot, 2010, p. 94). If these profit driven medical industries did not intentionally prioritize making profits off their doctors and advancements, then they would not have taken the fifty million dollars to continue the work which would have been done anyways. The acceptance of the monetary donation by profit driven medical industries, like Hopkins, demonstrates the importance profit has on these industries and doctors.

Various medical industries motivated by profit may intend to cure deadly diseases. Clearly, these profit driven medical industries hire many doctors and buy expensive equipment to sustain the research into finding cures for cancer, polio, and numerous other diseases. Initially, scientists used HeLa “for one reason: to help stop Polio '' (Skloot, 2010, p. 93). These Medical Industries, like Johns Hopkins, put forward their best efforts to cure polio using Henrietta’s HeLa cells. The extraneous effort put forward by Johns Hopkins to cure polio reveals the emphasis profit driven medical industries put on curing diseases. Scientists who work for profit driven medical industries may be hired by other corporations to research disease, furthering advancements in the medical field which cure disease.

For example, “At the request of the U.S. government, Gey took Henrietta's cells with him to the far East...to study Hemorrhagic fever,” (Skloot, 2010, p. 102). These Medical Industries are even curing disease away from the home front. Unenthusiastically, Gey traveled East, bypassing all HeLa responsibilities to other industries; which continued the diagnostic work Gey was doing which was curing the sick. In 1971, President Nixion put forth “$1.5 billion for cancer research [for] over the next three years” (Skloot, 2010, p. 173)”. Johns Hopkins and various other profit driven medical industries intended to find a cure for cancer, with the aid of 1.5 billion dollars from the President. With monetary help, Medical industries were working continuously to advance the medical field by researching to cure cancer, which is clearly an intended effort. medical hospitals and cooperations driven by profit intentionally prioritize curing diseases, like Cancer and Polio.

Profit driven medical industries may end up unintentionally breaching confidentiality and privacy in the works of making medical advancements. One of the most widely used examples of breaching privacy in the medical world is the cervical tissue taken from Henrietta Lacks. Though “ no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting samples” (Skloot, 2010, p. 33), Henrietta’s tissue was still taken and tested on without her knowledge. This biopsy was not taken illegally, however Henrietta had no idea her tissue was being taken or tested on, which is a violation of privacy due to the absence of specific consent for the biopsy. In order to create progress in the medical field, some extreme measures have to be taken. For example, Doctor McKusick and Doctor Hsu drew various blood samples from the Lacks children “without giv[ing] instruction [or] explaining the research to the Lackses” (Skloot, 2010, p. 182).

Additionally, Hsu lied to Debrah allowing Debrah to think she was being tested for Cancer, leading to Debrah's frantic behavior and fear over her perceived pending cancer diagnosis. Four days after Deborah gave more blood to McKusick- hoping more blood would allow the doctors to determine if she had cancer- “ a new law went into effect requiring the Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval and informed consent for all federally funded research. The new law… applied to all “subjects at risk”...[or] any individual who may be exposed to..injury as a consequence of participation” (Skloot, 2010, p. 187). This new law made McKisick and Hsu’s act of taking the Lackses blood illegal, because the family did not receive informed consent from the doctors who put them at risk by drawing their blood. Furthermore, because the Lackses did not understand why their blood was being taken or what genetic information they were giving the doctors, the withdrawal of the family’s blood was a violation of privacy. The Lacks family’s blood gave the doctors “the ability to uncover genes..and could allow someone to uncover...genetic information” (Skloot, 2010, p. 187).

The Lackses did not understand that the blood being taken was going to be used to exploit their genetic information, therefore it was an invasion of their privacy and personal information. The Lackses were constantly being bombarded by reporters, like Cofield, for information about Henrietta. This constant surveillance is similar to Bentham's panopticon. The panopticon is a meticulously created prison structure in which prisoner cells are arranged in a circle. The middle of the prison holds a large vertical tower which is able to see all cells at all times. The constant surveillance makes the prisoners conscious and wary; just like how Henrietta's family feels because they are constantly being hunted down for information. Profit driven medical industries, like the one Hsu and McKusick work for, may end up unintentionally breaching confidentiality and privacy in an effort to advance the field of medicine.

The violation of basic human rights could be an unintended consequence of advancement done by profit driven medical industries. Sometimes, the line may get blurred between living patients and clumps of valuable tissue. Chester Southam, a virologist, had injected Henrietta's cells in the forearm of various people, which confirmed a frightening thought- Henrietta’s cells could cause cancer if injected into healthy living tissue. The only problem with Southams findings was that the data was obtained unethically because the patients did not know they were being injected with malignant cells. The “patients (would) have refused to participate if they’d known what he was injecting” (Skloot, 2010, p. 130), Southam stated. Southam violated a basic right, knowledge of what medical experimentation is being tested on you, to further his medical research.

In Nuremberg, Germany, Nazi doctors were sentenced to death because of their voilation of basic human rights. These doctors “ sew[ed] siblings together to make siamese twins...and dissect[ed] people alive (Skloot, 2010, p. 131). This violation of humanity was described as “illegal, immoral, and deplorable” (Skloot, 2010, p. 133) by William Hymen, a lawyer in a case where Southam was on trial. The Nuremberg laws were a code of ethics put into place to govern human experimentation, the only problem is that the code is not federal law. Additionally, Southams secret injection of HeLa cells into test subjects is classified as “a violation of basic human rights and the Nuremberg code” (Skloot, 2010, p. 132) because the test subjects were unaware of the risks of Southams trial. In an effort to create medical advancements, some doctors, like Chester Southam, may violate the basic human rights of their test subjects to obtain information that could further their research.

In conclusion, profit driven medical industries intend to do positive things but can unintentionally cause negative effects. Intentions on these industries encompass making profits and curing deadly diseases. Profit is somewhat necessary to keep these industries successful, however money is a main emphasis to doctors and researchers who work for these industries, as shown by the acceptance of millions of dollars to continue their research. Clearly, these medical industries intend to cure disease, and they do a very efficient job of it. Vaccines and cures for diseases are uncovered regularly and the work to find the cure for cancer is still going on today. However, some unfortunate consequences may follow these intentions.

Invading privacy, breaching confidentiality, and violating basic human rights are some of the negative unintended consequences these profit driven medical industries cause. Privacy is a right everyone has, which is why it was such an outrage when Hsu andMcKisick took Lackses genetic information without explanation. Furthermore, the doctors’ violation of patients’ basic human rights show the extent of dehumanization done by the doctors. Doctors do not look at patients like humans, but rather numbers and clumps of valuable tissue. The violation of basic human rights is an unintentional consequence done by profit driven medical industries and doctors to further their advancements. In conclusion, medical industries intentionally make immense profits and cure diseases, but the unintentional actions that follow these intentional acts, like violation of privacy and basic human rights, speak a louder volume.