Generosity

A decade ago, diligent journalistic digging brought to light the hidden story of how researchers at John Hopkins University had appropriated unusual cancer cells taken from a poor Black Baltimore woman, Henrietta Lacks. They used these in cancer and other studies, without meaningful consent or compensation to Lacks or her surviving family. She died of her disease; her cells, named HeLa by the doctors, lived on in medical research.

The story of this unexamined appropriation of a woman's body parts for science and profit raised up profound failures of scientific and medical ethics. Lacks' descendants eventually won some compensation; the journalist, Rebecca Skloot, founded the Henrietta Lacks Foundation which has used its funds to provide grants to poor people of color who are survivors of medical exploitation.

The Foundation mission statement:

to promote public discourse concerning the role that contributions of biological materials play in scientific research and disease prevention, as well as issues related to consent, and disparities in access to health care and research benefits, particularly for minorities and underserved communities.

In this time of coronavirus threat, the Lacks family has stepped out to encourage vaccinations, despite their own history with medical exploitation. Nobody knows better that doctors sometimes aren't your friends -- and nobody knows better that if medical help becomes available, it's good to get some.