Description
Henrietta Lacks died in 1951, aged 31, of an aggressive cervical cancer. In the process of her treatment scientists took cells from her tumour without her knowledge or consent. These cells, called HeLa, were the world’s first immortal human cell line. Today, HeLa can be found in almost any laboratory in the world. HeLa revolutionised the field of cell and tissue culture and have been used in the development of drugs and vaccines to fight polio, herpes, leukaemia, influenza, haemophilia and Parkinson’s disease. Yet, Lacks did not consent to the use of her tissue for research as at the time consent was not needed for research on human subjects. No law or code of ethics required doctors to ask permission before taking tissue from a living patient. Drawing from Hegelian recognition theory, this article argues that the scientific practice of tissue extraction without a patient’s informed consent is a form of institutionalised misrecognition. This institutional norm of tissue extraction without consent, prevalent in the field of US medicine at the time, denied the individual autonomy over their body and in turn dignity and self-respect. Medical misrecognition facilitated the extraction of Henrietta Lacks’ cells that now underpin the global bioeconomy.
