Henrietta Lacks Cells Alive For Medical Industry Benefits

Lacks’ Cells Alive for Medical Industry Benefits
The story of Henrietta Lacks in this reading is fascinating. By using Ms. Lacks’ cells, medical science has developed many cures. By one woman contributing her cells decades ago without her knowledge, on an involuntary basis, the impact has become mind-boggling. At the same time, it is disheartening and shaming to know that Henrietta’s family was unable to pay for medical attention for her. Henrietta Lacks contributed to science but received nothing in return. Lacks was paying public contributions to the advancement of medicine and science, but health professionals used a human being as a patient and experimented with her cells without asking permission for the sake of such medical advances to

Lacks’ family and the university violated the privacy of Ms. Lacks. The healthcare professionals violated the privacy of this patient because she was uneducated, poor, and nonwhite, which created a debate about the issues of health privacy in the medical records of patients in the health care system in America to this day.
First, the health professionals failed to comply with the privacy of the patient because the patient was uneducated. When Henrietta’s cells were taken, she did not have any knowledge that the doctor took the sample of her cells. As Deborah, Henrietta’s daughter says, “They took Henrietta Lacks’ cells and kept it from us for 20+ years. They say, ‘Donated.’ No No No! Robbed! Myself nor my father have not signed any paper…” From this example, Henrietta Lacks’ cells were not given voluntarily. They were not donated to the hospital or doctor or researcher, this is evidence of violation of patient’s privacy. Ms. Lacks’ cells were not just kept it in the laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, but her cells were sent to various labs outside the university for the sake of scientific advancement. Even if Henrietta had been approached, given explanation and had given her legal signature that she was willing to donate her cells, her cells were

When a researcher from the National Cancer Institute was visiting a friend, Bobbette, who was the wife of one of Henrietta’s oldest son’s. He asked her last name and excitedly asked her if she was related to Henrietta Lacks. He told her about Henrietta Lacks, and Bobbette ran to tell the family that Henrietta was still alive. The researcher or anyone else in the medical field was not supposed to tell or ask anyone including relatives about Henrietta’s medical records. This describes the issue of violation of privacy to access personal information from medical records. The professional health workers took Henrietta’s cells from her cervical area, utilizing her body for the sake of science. It was violation and a crime. Because of these issues, it has raised the concern about hospital administrators following privacy protocol to this day. This should not have been done by medical staff, especially professionals to keep her information confidential, with no public access to her records. This is why her privacy was made public and violated in the way the university used her information in such a dehumanizing way while they made millions even billions of dollars of profit off of her information. Because of Henrietta’s case, medical professionals and staff need to be trained to keep all patient’s information confidential. Ms. Lacks’ case regarding her cells being taken is a story that is still alive