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The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Ethical Analysis

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A common thing with aging is the degeneration of muscles and mental health, which may lead to older adults not understanding their ethical and legal rights; however in today’s society it hardly occurs to people that scientist and medical researchers may profit from their tissues and they may not see a dime from what their tissues help make. In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Skloot mentions numerous examples of ethical and legal issues in aging that follows a woman by the name of Henrietta. The most important lesson that is shown throughout the book is the issue of informed consent, which brings about numerous ethical and legal issues. One ethical issue that addresses the lesson of informed consent wrong is profiting from another …show more content…

However her family had no clue the contributions her mother’s cells did for the medical industry and her family could barely pay for their medication and health insurance, as stated by Deborah Lacks, “I can’t say nuthin bad about science, but I won’t lie, I would like some health insurance so I don’t got to pay all that money every month for drugs my mother cells probably helped make.”(p.256). Secondly it addresses morality which can be defined as “concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong.” How far is morally unethical? It depends on the person that answers and therein lies a problem if morality it different for everyone what can be considered right or wrong. During the 1960s patients were often untold they were being used for research. “Like many doctors of this era TeLinde often used patients from the public wards for research without their knowledge.” (Skloot, 2010, p. 29). The doctors believed that since the patients were being treated for free they had the right to use them as subjects in research. However in today’s society while informed consent is a common practice there are still injustices where patient’s samples are being bought and sold without their knowledge. This is where the problem rises should paying a patient for …show more content…

During the 1960’s when Henrietta found out she had cancer there was still segregation in America and that meant African Americans were not treated with equality. Certain things that were done to them were not considered legally right, but were deemed medically appropriate. For example the Tuskegee syphilis study which occurred in the 1930’s; “They recruited hundreds of African-American men with syphilis, then watched them die slow, painful and preventable deaths, even after penicillin could cure them.”(Skloot, 2010, p. 50). Also there was the Mississippi Appendectomies; “…unnecessary hysterectomies performed on poor black women to stop them from reproducing, to give young doctors a chance to practice the procedure.”(Skloot, 2010, p. 50). Racism has since been abolished and is now considered discrimination; also it is illegal to do any medical procedure on uninformed patients. However in today’s society like the era before, everyone has their own opinion and although it is legally and socially unethical people can still be bias. Also the patients in the studies did not have informed consent. There are three things in which you need to have informed consent; knowing, voluntary and competency.(10/17/13) They subjects had none of them, “They were poor and uneducated, and the researchers offered incentives…” (Skloot, 2010, p. 50). Things have certainly improved for African-Americans and for the medical field in

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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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This essay uses the book“ The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot to investigate the requirements of informed consent ,by informing the patients through every steps Henrietta’s story is an example on informed consent. On one hand theorists such as, Dale Keigner argue that informed consent should be notified by the doctor to the patient and the patient should be knowledge on the proceeding that the doctors will maintain. On the other hand , Lewis Soloman contends that the doctors should be able to take any specimens from the patient after operating without consent for scientific reasons and research. . He also asserted that doctors should be able to deduct any specimen that will be able to help in the science research. Others maintain

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Multiple times throughout the book it was mentioned that Henrietta’s biopsy took place 60 years ago and a lot of changes have been made to science and ethics. This book did a good job bringing up ethics in science and scientific achievements that have been made over the years, but in some ways it was sensationalized to get the family the recognition they feel they deserved. As a poor, black family, the Lacks’ were discriminated against. Even the medical treatments they received were often not the best treatments offered and they were often experimented on. Having the fear of being mistreated and used for experimentation made the Lacks’ even more upset about Henrietta’s death.

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When Hopkins wanted more blood samples from the Lacks, the doctors told Day that the blood sample would be used to see if they would be prone to develop cancer in the future; however, the true intention of the doctors was to see if the Lacks had something that can contribute to further HeLa cell research. Also, informed consent was not present in this case of Henrietta’s autopsy. Although Day did get a consent form, he did not fully understand the agreements written on the paper. If Day had known that Henrietta’s cells would be used in experiments, he would not have agreed. In addition, another important case of informed consent violation is the experiment done by Chester Southam.

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Sonali Sagar Block: 2B May 12th 2015 The Degradation of Morals and Ethics In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks the author Rebecca Skloot tells us about a non-fiction story of an African American women who is diagnosed with cervical cancer and how the medical community exploited her for use of her “immortal” cells. From then onwards the cells have been used for widespread medical advancement and research. There is no denying the good that has come from this as even the polio vaccine was developed from these HeLa cells. Moreover, it has also been aiding with finding a cure for cancer as well as assisting with further research on AIDS.

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Withholding medical information from patients without their knowledge or consent no matter what the era in history

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When reading the novel, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot, it is shocking to see how this whole case was handled. Doctors at John Hopkins Hospital took cells from Henrietta without her knowledge or consent and went on to create the first line of human immortal cells that would help make the polio vaccine and find cures for cancers. Also Henrietta’s name and personal healthcare information as released to the general public without her family even being aware that these cells existed (Skloot, 2011). When reading this novel in the current time it can be shocking, because major violations of patient privacy and lack of informed consent is now protected by federal law. Unfortunately, Henrietta could not be protected by the federal acts such as HIPPA that we have today.

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Henrietta Lacks was a black tobacco farmer from the south who, in 1950, at the age of 30, she was diagnosed with aggressive cervical cancer. Lacks went to John’s Hopkins medical center for treatment for her cancer. In April of 1951, she underwent surgery to remove the larger tumor on her cervix. Henrietta Lacks, died three days following the surgery. Even though Henrietta Lacks died, her cells from the tumor have lived on and have made a major impact on the biomedical community.

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In the reading of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, the author Rebecca Skloot makes it well known that Henrietta Lacks, while a patient at John Hopkins Hospital samples of her cells was taken from her without her or her family’s knowledge or consent. We are made aware of this on page 33 “though no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting samples or asked if she wanted to be a donor — Wharton picked up a sharp knife and shaved two dime sized pieces of tissue from Henrietta’s cervix”. As a health professional, you are violating that patients’ rights and in this case the Lacks right to privacy were violated. The way that the lacks family’s right to privacy was the fact that Henrietta’s cells often referred to as the HeLa cells

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One of the most obvious issues in this book is Henrietta did not give permission for doctors to take her cells. Her story is a prime example of the ethical tradeoffs the scientific community struggles with in pursuit

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Before I start my discussion, I would like to thank Henrietta Lacks for her cells even though they were taken without her consent and also thank the Lacks’ family for their patience in dealing with this issue of not being told about the use of the Henrietta’s cells. Neither Henrietta nor her family got recognition for them. This story tells us how far we have come in this day and age in terms of privacy information and what people can and cannot do because of HIPPA. It was common practice to use people’s information and cells without their consent.

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Every year doctors move forward in the chase to find cures for diseases, such as common colds, viruses, and more, thanks to the testing of cells from the infected. Henrietta Lacks’ stolen cancer cells have led to biological advances that have been crucial for several cures. In “A Family Consents to a Medical Gift, 62 Years later,” Carl Zimmer focuses on Henrietta Lacks’ cells, the tension between the National Institute of Health, and the battle to release the experiments to the public all while attempting to choose the side of the companies over the side of the family that was kept outside of the loop. Over 1,500 people die from cancer in a day, 500,000 in a year (Landis).

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One of the most important concepts in the medical field nowadays is informed consent. Unfortunately, a few years ago this was not the case. The lack of importance given to informed consent can clearly be seen in the novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. The novel that tells the story of an African American woman with cancer (Henrietta Lacks) who doctors and researchers took samples of cells (HeLa cells) in her body (without obtaining informed consent from her or her family) to conduct research studies. Chester Southam was a well- respected cancer researcher and chief of virology at Sloan- Kettering Institute for Cancer Research.

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“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot is about an African American woman who had her cells taken without any consent from her or her family to benefit the medical and science field. The Lacks family had no idea about Henrietta’s cells were alive and tested on for all kind of experiments. Henrietta’s case and other similar cases brought up an issue of who has the ownership of the tissue: the patient or the researcher? This issue became serious when researchers and scientists started making profits and having it patented. The argument against giving people legal ownership of their tissues is that everyone benefits from the research.

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However, reading this story was just like rewriting it for myself. Rewriting the moralities and ethics of this book to my own morals book. This book captured the attention of all researchers, educators, students and the general public. I did not imagine that I will shape a moral framework for my self from this story. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks revealed the ethical problems and complex social issues interlaced with HeLa cells and medical research more broadly: concerns of consent, privacy and compensation, among others.

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