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Henrietta Lacks Violation Of Autonomy At Johns Hopkins

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Herded onto slave ships, forced into labor, and treated lower than animals, 12.5 million Africans were brought to the New World between 1525 and 1866 and became the foundation of the United States, a country now based on liberty and justice for all. Just because America is a beacon of hope and a symbol of equality in the 21st century, its roots in slavery are not morally justified by its current state. Similarly, Henrietta Lacks’ violation of autonomy at Johns Hopkins may have been accepted back then, but it does not make violating her autonomy any more morally correct. Despite the monumental advances in science that stemmed from Henrietta Lacks’ cancer cells, the violation of Henrietta’s autonomy and the hardships she and her family faced …show more content…

Henrietta Lacks was treated in a hospital as another data point to be mapped. According to Kant, morally good people should never treat someone as a means to an end. In Chapter 3, Skloot states that Henrietta did sign a waiver form that allowed the physician to perform any necessary procedure, but it never stated her agreeance to Johns Hopkins taking a sample of her cervical tissue or that she would be informed of any procedures. In fact, no one ever told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting samples. The samples were taken for Gey and his research purpose of growing immortal human cells. After HeLa cells became widespread, industries like Microbiological Associates in Chapter 13 commercialized the production of HeLa and sold HeLa cells in the millions to scientists all over the world. However, no one at Microbiological Associates bothered to ask where HeLa cells are from and why none of the profits go anywhere else. Henrietta’s cells were used as a means to earn money for the company and a means for George Gey to be famous. Even her healthcare physician Dr. TeLinde used Henrietta as a means for expanding on his cervical cancer procedure of using radium. As Henrietta and her visit to Johns Hopkins was essentially her being used as a stepping stone for another person’s career, she was treated as a means to an end. Taking her cells without her permission, selling them without her or her family knowing, and her treatment overall is not morally good nor

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The Fluidity of Henrietta Lacks. Gender Norms & Racial Bias in the study of the Modern “Henrietta Lacks” Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman whose cancer cells were the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research. An immortalized cell line will reproduce indefinitely under specific conditions, and the HeLa cell line continues to be a source of invaluable medical data to present day. Lacks was the unwitting source of these cells from a tumor biopsied during treatment for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. in 1951. The cells were then cultured by George Otto Gey who created the cell line known as HeLa, which is still

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And somewhere along the line, HeLa cells came from Helen Lane. Whether this was done to keep Henrietta’s identity a secret or not, give credit to Henrietta Lacks, who was an African American woman during the 40’s, Henrietta’s identity was kept a secret. Apart from that, I have already mentioned the hundreds of innovations brought about by Hela cells. Only for Henrietta’s children and spouse to never receive any credit, or compensation for that matter. The Lacks family has paid large amounts for medical coverage and

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Henrietta Lacks Honor Essay “The reason Henrietta's cells were so precious was because they allowed scientists to perform experiments that would have been impossible with a living human. They cut HeLa cells apart and exposed them to endless toxins, radiation, and infection. They bombarded them with drugs, hoping to find one that would kill malignant cells without destroying normal ones.” (58)”Throughout the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” there are many examples of how the HeLa cell of Henrietta Lacks provided cellular information and examples that helped mold many cellular discoveries and experiments.

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The Case of Henrietta Lacks In January of 1951, a 30 year old African American, married mother of five visited Johns Hopkins Hospital for vaginal bleeding, her name was Henrietta Lacks. At the time, Johns Hopkins was the only hospital in the area that would treat African American patients. During a pelvic examination, Dr. Howard W. Jones performed a biopsy of a mass located on Mrs. Lacks' cervix. Laboratory test results came back positive for terminal cervical cancer and Mrs. Lacks began treatment.

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Before 1962, there were no laws or guidelines that doctors had to follow when taking and using human cells. Ruth Faden, director of Johns Hopkins University says, "It's a sad commentary on how the biomedical research community thought about research in the 50's, but it was not at all uncommon for physicians to conduct research on patients without their knowledge or consent" (Skloot, "Cells," 2001). The researchers were not trying to be immoral, but they did not see anything wrong with taking tissue samples without consent, as long as the patient was not hurt. During that era, the researchers would forget about the patient once they had obtained a cell sample. They did not think about the fact that when conducting experiments, the cells they were using came from actual people.

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is at once a biography, a work of science journalism, and a book about the interconnected topics of ethics, justice, and racism. Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman who died from cervical cancer in 1951, was the source of the so-called HeLa cell line, which is “omnipresent” (Skloot, 2010, p. 24) in modern science. The HeLa cell line was derived from Henrietta Lacks’ cancerous tumor, which, against the wishes of Henrietta’s family was taken from her corpse and has been used for prolific and lucrative medical research for over seven decades (Skloot, 2010). Skloot (2010) described The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks as “a biography of both the cells and the woman they came from—someone’s daughter, wife, and mother” (pp. 25-26). While the HeLa cells are ubiquitous in research, the woman from whom they came is, at best, a footnote in biological or medical textbooks.

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Maybe figure out how to duplicate the cells and use it for other drugs that can help people heal better. All through this research and testing Henrietta was left in the dark she didn’t even know that the doctors removed a piece of her cervix for research purposes. She didn’t even receive credit for her cells until much much later. No one knew about the HeLa cells except for the doctors because they were trying to keep it a secret so their project wouldn’t get shutdown by not informing the patient that they’re using their cells. Some would say that the doctors did the right thing and kept the identity of the cells disclosed because later on it led to saving so many lives.

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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.

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I recently finished reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack, a biography about Henrietta Lacks and how human tissue was taken without consent then used for medical research. Henrietta Lacks, was a poor colored woman with very little education, who died from uremic poisoning, due to the treatment for cervical cancer October of 1951 at age 31. In January of 1951, Henrietta went to Johns Hopkins Hospital because she found a knot on her womb and was bleeding and pain in her abdomen. Johns Hopkins is known for being the best research hospital around, Henrietta did not go because it was the best place to go, she went because it was the closest hospital that treated color patience. She was first diagnosed with abnormal pain and bleeding in her

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Is it right for one's life to be manipulated for the use of scientific research or is it just a evasion on the person's privacy. Henrietta Lacks was a African American with cells that intrigued many people, she was diagnosed with cancer leaving her to be cared for at her local hospital, where she would later die due to the extremity of the illness. While at the hospital she was unaware that the doctors there were experimenting on her taking cell samples from her body, to help find a resolution to multiple diseases. The people who examined Henrietta manipulated her and the rest of her family to gain information on her cellular structure to be ahead of others looking to achieve the same objective. Henrietta Lacks cells should have never been evaluated because it's an evasion of her freedom, a danger to her personal health, and cause conflicts.

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The cells John Hopkins took from Henrietta’s tumor helped launch a multibillion-dollar industry, yet her family had no money (Monsen, 2011, p.2). “In the past sixty-three years several scientists have won Nobel prizes for research on HeLa Cells.” Henrietta’s genome wasn’t the first to be published. Unlike Henrietta, the other patients gave consent for the doctors to take samples (Barone, 2014,

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The story of Henrietta Lacks involves an extreme violation of privacy. The book describes and discusses issues related to access of personal information from medical records, use of tissue samples, informed consent, and privacy invasion. These are issues that have raised debate, and are of concerns to me as a social worker. Other significant issues in this book relate to a lack of respect for Henrietta Lacks and her family, as well as justice, race, and social class. Being a social worker and reading this book made me so upset.

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“Was It Illegal for Doctors to Take Cells from Henrietta Lacks Without her Consent?” How can you take cells from a human being and treat them as clothes that you’re just selling. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot told the story of the woman behind the famous cell line and the fact that her family did not know about Lacks’ immortal cells until more than 20 years after her death. Some believe it was legal to take Mrs. Lacks cells, while others disagree and say it’s illegal. It was definitely illegal for the doctors and scientist to take Henrietta’s cells without her consent.

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Concerned that Henrietta’s cancer cells could infect the scientists that worked with

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The origination of HeLa cells, used in biomedical research for a potential cure for cancer, had made many ground breaking discoveries in science; all thanks to one woman, Mrs. Henrietta Lacks. The history of Mrs. Lacks’s contribution to these studies raised many ethical issues concerning healthcare practice. In the short film, The Way of All Flesh, we learn how these cells were revealed by direct violation of ethical principles. During the 1950s, matters regarding informed consent practices were in their beginning stages of implementation.

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