The Immortal Case Of Henrietta Lacks

Many accomplishments have been made in healthcare efforts in the last few decades; but unknowingly these accomplishments came from the sacrifice of other individuals. In the case of Henrietta Lacks, she was not even aware what she had given up. As Lacks was dying from aggressive ovarian cancer, samples of her tumor cells were taken without her knowledge or consent. The researcher, who obtained them, George Gey, uncaringly acquired them for the benefit of his lab work. This act eventually turned his profession around making him a well-known wealthy scientist. Lacks' story is depicted in the book, The immortal Case of Henrietta Lacks, which takes place in the 1950's. With the time period and the challenge of being colored in mind, Lacks faced

As stated in lecture, public health is “the science of protecting and promoting the health of communities through education and research” (What is Public Health Lecture 8/27/14). In Henrietta’s story, her health was not the main concern of the hospital staff. While the segregation of the time period had an impact on her treatment, her desire to live was over powered by the staffs desire to keep patients to a minimum. Henrietta was consistently sent home while showing painful symptoms. At one point in her care, the staff banned the family from seeing her. Her story goes against many aspects of public health including policy development and assurance. Both of these features help provide a progressive well developed environment backed up by research, which is something that she did not experience through her discriminated care. Public health as a field relies greatly on safety measures and compliance as well as inquiry of data so that diseases can be understood in an ethical manor. From the delayed admission to the disrespect of her body and her family, Henrietta and her loved ones were not exposed to proper community centered health

Steps have been enforced in order to provide a safer environment for both the caregiver and the patient. The implemented consent form has given the laboratory workers a direct line of communication with the patients granting them permission to preform tests on removed tissues. Patients also have the right to deny any sort of testing; giving the power to the patient, which is something Henrietta never had. Many ethical contradictions were brought to the surface with the HeLa cells. They were taken without knowledge, studied, sold, and resold all without consent. The use of these cells provided our country with immense advancements in the health field showing the importance it had on the world. Her cells not only saved millions of lives but also provided a large influx of money to the research population. Henrietta’s path into sickness could have gone many different ways. If she wasn’t colored she could have had better and more efficient care. If she was wealthier she could have afforded more intense treatment. She could have been asked permission to test her cells and denied it. Or her family could have granted approval and inherited the money that later went to research. There are many things that could have gone differently, but in the end the sacrifice of one woman changed our world in many ways. Not only is consent needed as a result from her case, but due to the research we were able to