tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post2079154764153429835..comments2024-03-09T05:53:59.542-05:00Comments on Oz and Ends: Our Cancers, OurselvesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post-90136797432270356182013-08-08T16:11:06.300-05:002013-08-08T16:11:06.300-05:00Yes, there's a lot of irony involved in how La...Yes, there's a lot of irony involved in how Lacks's cells could be so harmful and yet so useful. <br /><br />The question of justice also brings up ironies. It appears that Lacks's medical treatment in 1951 was no worse because she was African-American; doctors couldn't do much for anyone with such powerful cancer cells. And the use of those cells was also typical of how physicians behaved then. They undoubtedly provided for the greater good. On the other hand, it's clear that Lacks and her family suffered from the broader racism in American society, an injustice we now want to acknowledge and, at least some of us, repair. <br /><br />The Lacks descendants won't profit financially from the new arrangement, in part because the U.S. Supreme Court has just ruled that people's naturally occurring genetic code can't be patented. Some of the Lacks family were already on record saying they didn't want money, just recognition and respect. J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post-47732096815374056682013-08-08T13:59:09.289-05:002013-08-08T13:59:09.289-05:00hi John,
I'm reading "The Immortal Life ...hi John,<br /><br />I'm reading "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" right now. It's quite a story.<br /><br />Interesting news about her descendants finally being included in decisions made about the use of her surviving cells. <br /><br />It's pretty weird that the cells that have proven so useful to medical research are monsters. Though they are genetically Ms Lacks the defects in those cells led them to torture the poor woman to death. The same (?) defects that killed Ms Lacks have made the cells extraordinarily hardy in the lab. <br /><br />-GlennGlenn Ingersollhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10674475308395975995noreply@blogger.com