Positionality in Medicine

 Case Study 1: HeLa Cells

What are HeLa Cells?

Positionally of 

Henrietta Lacks vs. George Otto Gey

      Henrietta Lacks                                                       George Otto Gey

1. African- American                                                            1. White German
2. Female                                                                              2. Male
3. Spent Childhood working Tobacco farm                         3. Childhood Pittsburgh Suburbia
4. Housewife/Tobacco Farmer                                             4. Cell biologist at John Hopkins Hospital
5. Catholic                                                                            5. n/a
6. Cervical Cancer                                                                6. Pancreatic Cancer
7. Mother/Wife                                                                     7. Husband/Father

As detailed above, the largest differences between the identities of Henrietta Lacks and George Otto Gey, were their race, gender, occupation and socioeconomic status.

Controversy surrounding HeLa involves Lack's cells being taken without her knowledge even in death. Her cells were later commercialized, producing profit as the immortal cell. The ethics of the acts of Gey are often in frequent discussion, as while the discovery of the cells contributed to a vast amount of medical research, Lacks, nor her family received compensation, especially when considering her socioeconomic status. The outcome of HeLa was the battle of positionality and identities, with Gey's, eventuality outweighing Lack's.

Drawing Connections!

Transcript:

In the case of Henrietta Lacks, the role of positionality in the proximity of race, played a more obvious role. Gey as a white privileged man in a time of racist tensions conducted his research through that position. With his position it did not consider the self-constructed identities of Lacks as equals and considered her more so a specimen to be researched; A thing to be objectified. His stance reflected the social standard of the time, even when morally wrong. As this position was executed through research and research, often in our society, is presented as fact, Gey’s stance is reaffirmed through the research. Due to the subjectivity of the researcher, Gey, the research itself carried societal biases inherent in Gey, as well as personal ones as someone so far outside of Lack’s positionality of an African American in racist America.

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