I am currently reading yet another disturbing book on medical ethics entitled Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself--And the Consequences for Your Health and Our Medical Future. The book is of a different nature then the book I read about the dreadful Nazi experiments; it focuses on the capitalist nature of our health care here in the United States. The book claims that major pharmaceutical companies, most of which can only legally operate within America, are acting against the health of the common person because their drive for profit outweighs their concern for health. Some of the examples used by the book directly relate to Henrietta Lacks, and in some ways may possibly be directly related to her experience. A major development on this topic is the legal release signed by patients during surgeries which allow companies to own any and all excised tissues in case they turn out to have medical or monetary value. This book may not take a central role in my senior paper, but it could provide an interesting context on the current state of medicine. It would be up to me to connect Henrietta Lacks to the modern medical system, well as best I can given the wickedly complex system in place. It brings up the question on whether I should focus on a more modern or historical paper.
