Henrietta Lacks And Ethics

If you were dying, of a terminal illness, in a hospital and doctor told you that they wanted to take samples of your tissues to run tests, would you willingly volunteer? In today's society, people are given the freedom if they want to partake in medical research, but back in the 50s, Henrietta Lacks was not given the choice. The decision the doctor made to take Henrietta's cells has changed the medical field as they knew it forever. This action brought about many changes to the medical field such as the laws pertaining to voluntary participation in medical research, the use of these cells in new medical research where other cells have failed, and the morality of true patient consent. Although the involuntary research that Henrietta took

Although these ideas are used as complimentary terms, they have major differences. Morals are more theoretical, conceptual, philosophical and often personal, normally stemming from religion or culture. While ethics are empirical, realistic and normally are articulated toward being right or wrong in a large scale society. In other words, morals identify the way a person lives, while ethics are the codes of conduct expected by a group. Some define this as "ethics are the science of morals, and morals are the practice of ethics". (Ethics vs. Morals) Ethics and Morals are believed to be developed through the implantation of social norms and values.

Social norm is the awareness that people can impact a society's conduct or behaviour. Social norms are seen as implied rules that expected to be upheld, deviating from these rules can make people within the society to question the person’s morals. Social norms are constantly changing due to societal pressures, religion, values, and status quos. Social normalities are determined by each community differently, and are interpreted many ways. In the medical community social norms have drastically changed, especially when to comes to patient consent and

Yet consent is far more intricate than that, due to the different components of consent. There are said to be four main pieces to consent: “capacity to make decisions”, “ a medical provider disclosing information on treatment, test, etc.” , “comprehension of the relevant information”, and finally, “ volunteering grant consent, without coercion or duress”. (Emedicinehealth.com) Since the exposure, and the violation, of Henrietta lacks and her cells, consent has changed. "In the '60s and early '70s with the bioethics movement, there was a sea change in moving from a paternalistic model to placing a high value on patient autonomy,"said Kernahan, a well known physician. Patients went from knowing just enough for doctors to get buy with any procedure being taken , to getting to know every microscopic detail of their healthcare and options. Informed consent is crucial to a better recovery and treatment of a patient. I believe a patient should have the option to explore and be opened to every technical portion of their care. When dealing with a surgery myself, knowing the steps and procedures that were being taken upon on my body was comforting. I knew exactly what could happen and how my doctors were going to approach my situation. Informed