Black History Month Book Review: A One-Woman Miracle: ...The release of this book has generated a great deal of media buzz and commentary, most of it focused on the ethics of taking human cells without consent and profiting from them without compensating the donor or family. Commentators also lamented the exploitation of Black people in medical experiments they likened to the Tuskegee syphilis studies, though there are distinctions between the cases. No one stood by and watched Lacks die without treating her, as far as we know. Lacks died in the colored ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital, the only one around that would treat Blacks then and one of the best in the country.The ethical issues are of the utmost importance, of course, but what seems to be missing from the discussion so far is the human element that goes to the heart of this book and the writer’s apparent intent.
