Bioethics

(Excerpted fromChicago Humanities Festival 2010)

Many of the medicines, vaccines, and research advances that we take for granted today were unimaginable only a few decades ago. As recently as the 1950s, polio paralyzed and killed thousands of children each summer. This terrible epidemic prompted scientists to begin the search for a vaccine.

In that era, medical research was often conducted on people without their knowledge or consent. Author David Oshinsky investigates this fact in Polio: An American Story. His examination intersects with Rebecca Skloot’s illumination of another critical turning point in the history of public health, the development of HeLa cells. The creation of the polio vaccine ultimately depended on HeLa cells, a special line of cells that don’t die, which were extracted from a woman named Henrietta Lacks in 1951. Lacks did not give permission for scientists to use her cancer cells, and it was years before her family knew anything about the distribution and impact of her cell line.

In this debate, you will discuss ethical responsibility, moral action, bioethics, and the concept of “a greater good.”

Goals

  • To weigh both sides of a debate
  • To think critically about ethical issues
  • To develop presentation skills
  • To evaluate arguments
  • To research historical events

Essential Questions

  • What do we mean by “bioethics”?
  • What role does morality play in science and medicine?
  • How do you evaluate the worth (costs/benefits) of progress?
  • Do you “own” your body?
  • In what ways do current scientific research methods differ from those in the past?
  • Where do you draw the line between hurtful and harmful?

Please go to the following link ( and listen to the audio by David Oshinsky. As you listen answer the following questions:

  1. What do you think Oshinsky means by “informed consent”?
  2. Sabin tested his vaccine on inmates as well as individuals living in the Pennsylvania Home for the Feebleminded. Why did he choose these two groups of subjects? What do they have in common?
  3. How might Sabin and Salk’s testing process be different if they were working on creating a vaccine today?
  4. Oshinsky notes that two million people volunteered to be vaccinated against polio, without knowing if the vaccine would be safe or effective. Why do you think so many people signed up?
  5. Would you have wanted the vaccine? What if a test vaccine came out tomorrow for AIDS or cancer – how would you make the decision to take the vaccine or not?
  6. Many children were given the test vaccine at the request of their parents. Do you agree with the parents’ decision? Why or why not?
  7. What does Oshinsky mean by “risk versus reward”?

Rebecca Skloot discussion

After watching the following discussion and using the information you gained from reading the story of Henrietta Lacks answer the following questions in your groups:

  • Do you think it was wrong for researchers to obtain Henrietta’s cells without her permission? Why or why not?
  • What were some of the positive and negative consequences of the commercialization of Henrietta Lacks’ cells? Do you believe it was worth it?
  • Why does Skloot share the story of her father? How does that story impact her relationship with Deborah?
  • How is the story of Skloot’s father similar to or different from Sabin’s testing of the polio vaccine?
  • Henrietta Lacks’ cells have been instrumental in advancing scientific research, including the polio vaccine, even though her family didn’t grant permission to use her cells. Do you think the family should be compensated in some form? Why or why not?
  • Do you believe you “own” your body? Does it matter that Henrietta was a poor black woman dying of cancer?
  • How would you feel if you were in Deborah Lacks’ shoes? How would you feel if you were in Rebecca Skloot’s shoes, driving your father to the hospital for treatments?
  • Why does Skloot say she won Deborah’s trust through sharing information? Is information empowering or is ignorance bliss? Consider this question in the context of the polio vaccine as well.
  • What responsibilities do you believe researchers have to their subjects?