Henrietta Lacks And The Discovery Of The Hela Cell

One of the most impactful discoveries in medical history came from a knot on a womb. The story describes the lives of the Lacks family, the discovery of the HeLa cell and the journey of an author, eager to find facts to tell this family’s story. Henrietta Lack was a woman who came from a big family and had one of her own. She was diagnosed with cervix cancer and during treatment her doctor took samples of her tumor without her knowledge, set it to a lab and unknowingly became the discovery of a lifetime. The immortal HeLa cell could live and multiply without dying; this was essential for tests of vaccines, treatments and how human cells react in certain conditions. Although this was life changing, Henrietta passed and no one explained to the

She was not aware of that consequence and would not have proceeded with the treatment had she had known. Another ethical issue that was brought to my attention was the detail that the sample of Henrietta’s tumor was unknowingly taken and sent to a lab. The two ethical issues contradict with informed consent standards. For informed consent to be valid it must be, knowingly, voluntarily and competently give. In the first issue, it was standard at Hopkins for individuals to be told about fertilely loss, but that was not the case for Henrietta. With only a middle school education, Henrietta might not have understood what the doctors were explaining to her, if they even attempted to. Knowing what all the risks could have been almost impossible for her to understand. Knowing and competency were breached in this case. In the second issue, Henrietta did print her name on a form which stated consent for any procedures to be taken place. In my opinion, that is a very general statement; who really knows what that implies? Regardless of that consent, Henrietta was still unaware of the sample taken before and after the treatment. The doctor should have clearly explained all procedures that were going to take place during that appointment. Henrietta’s inability to understand due to her lack of education and poor explanations from the employees at

Dr. Gey took the sample from Henrietta and submitted it to the lab even though it was a tedious task. If the cells he sent in had died, they would have been disposed and a new sample would begin testing. Henrietta would have never known about the sample and no one would have even spoken about her cells again; but her cells were special. Casuistry is the case approach to ethics; decisions are made based on prior cases. Nothing like the HeLa cell was ever discovered, therefore there was nothing to guide how the discovery should have been handled. A moral judgment could have only been made if someone had a complete understanding of the situation. Dr. Gey understood that he discovered something revolutionary and had to share it with others; there was no time to think about the