Q&A With UAB Professor Gregory Pence About Bioethics of Henrietta Lacks Case
From 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the Central Library on Tuesday, October 4, which is the anniversary of Lacks' death, UAB philosophy professor and bioethicist Dr. Gregory Pence will host a discussion and Q & A session about how the Henrietta Lacks story became a political and ethical issue regarding medical consent, as well debate on race and bodily rights.
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| Dr. Gregory Pence |
In a Q&A with BPL, Dr. Pence shared his thoughts on Henrietta Lacks, who became a prominent figure in the bioethical field after going to John Hopkins Hospital, where she was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer in 1951.
Those cancerous cells on her cervix were biopsied without her knowledge and are known today as HeLa cells.
Dr. Pence is a well known bioethicist who has authored numerous articles, essays and books on bioethical subjects, including the best-selling textbook Medical Ethics. Dr. Pence has been interviewed on the CBS Morning Show, Talk Back with Gretta Van Susteren, and CNN News With Wolf Blitzer.
BPL: Dr. Pence, for those unfamiliar with you, please share your academic background and how long you have been involved in the field of bioethics.
Dr. Pence: I have been at UAB for 47 years. My first publication in Bioethics was over 50 years ago, so in some sense, I’m one of the oldest, living people in modern bioethics, aka a “founder” of modern bioethics.
BPL: What exactly is the field of bioethics?
Dr. Pence:
Bioethics discusses ethical issues raised not only for physicians in medicine, but also for nurses, pharmacists, and hospital administrators. It also discusses issues of general science, such as welfare of animals in research, genetically modified foods, and xenotransplantation.
BPL: Give a sneak preview of what you will be talking about during our Henrietta Lacks presentation Tuesday night.
Dr. Pence: I will be discussing four “takes” or “stories” about the case of Henrietta Lacks and her HeLa Cells: the scientific story, the story of author Rebecca Skloot to the Lacks family, the story of institutional racism and modern medical research, and the story in public policy of who owns cells, tissue or plants.
BPL: I know this happened in 1951, but how were medical professionals able to do such research on Henrietta Lacks without her family’s knowledge?
Dr. Pence: Before 1969, when informed consent became standard, medical professionals did what they wanted without asking patients or their families.
BPL: Was Henrietta Lacks family ever compensated for all of the medical advancements made possible by the research done using her cells?
Dr. Pence: No.
BPL: When I hear of the Henrietta Lacks story, it brings back memories of things I heard about Blacks subjected to medical research during the Syphilis experiments in Tuskegee. What about you?
Dr. Pence: I will mention the Tuskegee Study and other studies like that which created distrust among Blacks of medical research.
BPL: Is Henrietta Lacks privacy and consent in this case still an issue in the ethical debates of today?
Dr. Pence: Yes.
BPL: Any closing remarks about your upcoming talk & the film screening?
Dr. Pence: In 1997, reporter Betsy Butgereit and editor Bob Blaylock contacted me about a policy they had discovered that allowed the county coroner to remove corneas from dead patients without anyone’s consent. In bioethics, context is everything, and in this case, the coroner worked at Cooper Green Hospital, our “St. Elsewhere” Hospital for indigent patients run by Jefferson County and its Commissioners, who had been ignorant of a policy that allowed the coroner to do so.
It seemed wrong to do without asking anyone, but even more so, because Cooper Green largely served poor black people and hey, we are only a hundred miles in Alabama north of where the Tuskegee Study occurred. When I was quoted this way, a small firestorm occurred, with some local ophthalmologists claiming that, if the policy changed, some patients would be left blind.
Nevertheless, as a bioethicist, I argued that consent should be obtained from the families. As a result, some local eye doctors urged the medical dean to fire me.
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