History reminds us that scientific progress achieved at the expense of the most vulnerable cannot be justified.
Attorney Ben Crump, second from left, walks with Ron Lacks, left, Alfred Lacks Carter, third from left, both grandsons of Henrietta Lacks, and other descendants of Lacks, outside the federal courthouse in Baltimore, Oct.
4, 2021. The family of Henrietta Lacks is settling a lawsuit against a biotechnology company it accuses of improperly profiting from her cells. Their federal lawsuit in Baltimore claimed Thermo Fisher Scientific has made billions from tissue taken without the Black woman’s consent from her cervical cancer tumor. For too many generations, Black communities have been subject to medical experimentations. The infamous Tuskegee syphilis study, which withheld treatment from Black men for 40 years, did not merely produce harmful science; it cemented generational distrust in public health that lingers in our communities today. The legacy of unethical medical research in this country runs even deeper than the Tuskegee experiments. In the mid-19th century, the surgeon J. Marion Sims, long lauded as the father of gynecology, developed surgical techniques by operating on enslaved Black women who could not consent, often without anesthesia. Their suffering enabled advances that benefited others long after, yet their names and pain were buried for generations. A century later, in 1951, a Black mother of five named Henrietta Lacks had a sample of her cervical cancer cells taken during medical treatment without her knowledge or consent. Those cells, called HeLa cells, became the first immortal human cell line and have been used ever since in countless scientific breakthroughs, including vaccine development and cancer research. Her contribution to science has saved lives around the world. This pattern was not confined to clinical research. During the Cold War era, U.S. government agencies conducted numerous radiation and chemical experiments on Black people without informed consent. Federally sponsored radiation studies in hospitals and clinics exposed thousands of patients to radioactive materials without their knowledge. Pregnant women, institutionalized children and other vulnerable people were involved in trials that often prioritized scientific data over human dignity and safety. In the same period, military programs tested dispersal of bacteria and chemical compounds over American cities and neighborhoods to evaluate vulnerabilities to biological or chemical warfare. In some urban areas, including predominantly Black neighborhoods, substances were released into the air as part of secret experiments to track dispersion patterns, leaving residents unaware they were part of a government study. Now, once again, a U.S. government-funded research initiative is repeating that shameful legacy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has quietly awarded ato a group of foreign researchers to study hepatitis B vaccinations among newborns in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. Under the design being proposed, some infants would receive the vaccine at birth while others would not, despite the vaccine’s long-proven ability to prevent chronic infection, cirrhosis and liver cancer. Let us be clear: Hepatitis B is not a theoretical threat in this region. In parts of West Africa, infection is widespread, and transmission at birth or in early infancy carries devastating lifelong risks. In the United States and in parts of Europe, we do not test the efficacy of vaccines on our babies with such experimental designs. Yet here, Black babies thousands of miles away are once again treated as research subjects rather than children entitled to basic protections. This is not compassion; it is a troubling echo of the notion that Black lives can be used to answer questions already resolved by science. Every parent, regardless of skin color or nationality, wants their child to have a healthy start. As an OB-GYN, I have cared for new mothers and watched them hold their infants for the first time. That instinct to protect is universal. Yet in this study, vulnerable infants may be denied the most effective tool we have to prevent a lifelong infection. We must ask the question: Why are our procedural and ethical protections being bypassed when the subjects are of African descent? History reminds us that scientific progress achieved at the expense of the most vulnerable cannot be justified. Ethical research, grounded in respect, informed consent and universal standards, must be the norm, not the exception. Weber Pierson is a board-certified OB-GYN and a California state senator for the 39th District. She was previously a member of the California Assembly and the La Mesa City Council.At 82, retired teacher and former marathon runner has discovered his next chapter doesn’t require a busy social calendar At 82, retired teacher and former marathon runner has discovered his next chapter doesn’t require a busy social calendarHow 3 small breweries in San Diego County are carving out new nichesDefense carries shorthanded San Diego State past Colorado StateAfter second trial, jury convicts San Diego County deputy who seriously injured restrained inmate
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