Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Henrietta lacks case study
Henrietta lacks case study
Essay on biomedical ethics case study 3
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Henrietta lacks case study
In the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, the author demonstrates the harsh realities that many African Americans faced in the medical and scientific field during the mid 20th century. The author shows the unjust practices of this time period through interviews with the Lacks family and medical professionals. These harsh realities are proven when Skloot talks to Henrietta’s family. Henrietta’s husband, Day, explains how they took samples from Henrietta’s body without consent when Skloot writes, “Day clenched his remaining three teeth. "I didn't sign no papers," he said.
Patients have no rights to samples taken from them as they become biological waste. Yet it is not necessary for doctors to obtain consent to store the same tissues that are supposed to be biological waste and use the samples for research. The lines in bioethics are blurred and there should be stricter guidelines on how research should be conducted and exactly who should benefit from. I believe the tissue donor should receive some sort of compensation because it not for said cells, the research would not exist. As with HeLa cells, without Henrietta Lacks, there would be no HeLa cells nor any
Henrietta Lacks John Moore was a leukemia patient that died at the age of 56 years old. He had his spleen removed because with the infection the doctor was worried that it was going to explode. Once his spleen was removed the tissue was then used in research by Dr. David Golde a researcher for UCLA (John Moors, 56; Sued to Share Profits from His Cells). John was never told about the research being done on his tissues, he was just asked by Dr. Golde to return to the UCLA medical center for follow up checkups, where doctors would take blood every time and still never mentioned anything about research to John.
Born in Roanoke, Virginia on August 1, 1920, Henrietta Lacks would one day unknowingly be the reason for one of the most important cell lines in medical research. Henrietta Lacks became the source of HeLa cells after her death on October 4, 1951 (aged 31), cells which were the first immortalized cell line in history; immortalized cells are cells that will reproduce indefinitely under specific conditions. While Henrietta’s cells were and continue to be used to treat many illnesses, there was never any consent given from Henrietta herself, or any of her family. To this day, no portion of the billions of dollars made from HeLa cells ever found it’s way to Henrietta’s family. The medical ethics in the 1950’s are very questionable in comparison
Who was Henrietta Lacks? Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman. She was born in August 1, 1920 as Loretta Pleasant. Henrietta was born in Roanoke, Virginia.
These ethical issues can further be explored and analyzed, which is the purpose of this paper, through modern day scientific ethics. First of all, who was Henrietta Lacks and what
The only problem is the patient never knew that he was going to take the cells and sell them to make profit. Since the doctor took it without him knowing it and since the patient never got any money from the cells it has caused huge debate on whether or not the cells are still property of the person after they leave your body. The court in this case ruled that the patient gets control over his cells and tissues whether they can use them or not (Skloot, 2010). Then the doctor appealed saying this that when they leave your body and are in the hands of the doctor then they own the right of your cells (ANNAS, 1990). This leads to me say that I feel that the cells are each patient’s property unless them give them to some else with consent.
What are the specific issues raised in the book—legally and ethically? Think about the 1980s John Moore case: the appeal court decision and its reversal by the California Supreme Court. Issues that raised in the book are race issues, the legality of taking adventage of patients who’s family aren’t able to fight for the rights and benefit of their cells. According to California supreme court, Under the duty to obtain informed consent, “a doctor must disclose his intent in using a patient for research and economic gain.” 6.
TIC673 HeLa Assignment 2018 In one of the best seller novel, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” the author Rebecca Skloot describes about the first human immortal cells that lived in laboratory culture and about the story of black, 31-year-old woman from whom these cells were obtained. The cells which not only proved to be most important in the field of medicine but also brought medical revolution were obtained from her without her or her family’s knowledge leading to the most debatable ethical issues. The following essay would describe the cell’s contribution to science, how they were obtained and some of the ethical issues violated. Henrietta’s cells did much good for the society.
Since the 2010 release of Rebecca Skloot’s New York Times bestselling non-fiction book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, many people both in and outside the scientific community are at least aware of the story of Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells . The almost-mythical tale of the immortal HeLa cell line, taken from Henrietta Lacks’s cancer-ridden cervix and grown in culture for more than sixty years now, has evolved and spread throughout the scientific and popular imaginary , surfacing in accounts of the miraculous power and possibility of scientific research and debates surrounding medical ethics . While HeLa was used to develop the polio vaccine, continues to be of use in the research of AIDS, leukemia, Parkinson’s disease, and a host of other medical conditions, and even sent up in the first space missions to test the conditions of human cells in zero gravity, the cell line also carries with it the history of the woman in whom it originated, the history of slavery and racism in America, and the entanglement of race, gender, class, and sexuality in the sciences.
“In 1999, president Clinton’s National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC) issued a report saying that federal oversight of tissue research is “inadequate” and “ambiguous”. It recommended specific changes that would ensure patients’ rights to control how their tissues were being used.” (page 327). Unfortunately, the changes were never made and scientists still have the ability to conduct research on one’s tissues without consent. The reason for why the changes were nullified remain unknown even to Wayne Grody an individual “who was in thick of the debate in the nineties, (for) why the congressional recommendations and NBAC report seemed to have vanished.”.
Does saving the human race from extinction matter if you did not get permission to take the materials necessary? When an African American women had her cells stolen without her consent she had no knowledge as to how she was going to benefit the world, let alone the science industry. This woman is Henrietta Lacks. Her cells and her legacy will never be forgotten throughout the world. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot presents the scientific progression of HeLa cells with study cases, such as the study of viruses and the development of the polio vaccine, in order to prove to the reader that HeLa was beneficial towards science and was not illegal in any ethical way.
In the United States today, ethical requirements now include non-maleficence, (not harming), beneficence (benefiting or doing good); autonomy (the patient has the right to choose or refuse medical treatment); and, justice (patients are treated impartially, without bias on account of gender, race, sexuality and wealth). Also reassuring is that a lot of effort is being made to safeguard the interest of Henrietta’s descendants and as a result, all NIH funded research on HeLa cells can only be published with the approval from a board that includes two of her
Through her cells we see the impact it created in medical research and understand ethical issues that arose from this experience. I, as many others in the world, strive for an answer on how to stop cancer from occurring and curing it once and for all. 1951 in Baltimore, Henrietta Lacks was a beautiful 30-year-old mother of five children who went to the gynecologist because of spotting between monthly cycles. On examination a lesion was found on her cervix that was biopsied for pathology and found to be epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix, Stage I cancer. This was an interesting case because when Henrietta’s cancer cells were tested they weren’t like other cancer cells; they were aggressive and grew very rapidly.
Lance Langel 11/18/14 P.8 Bibliography Fahy, D., & Nisbet, M. C. (2013). Bioethics in popular sciance: evaluating the medica impact of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks in the biobank debate .Retrievedfrombiomedcentralhttp://www.biomedcentral.com/1472- 6939/14/1 Due to biobanks, there has been many bioethical concerns regarding, disclosure, ownership, privacy, control, and consent. As an opportunity to engage an audience about these ethical issues, bioethicists have used Rebecca Skloot's book "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" (Fahy & Nisbet, 2013). To engage the audience, researchers conducted an analysis of relevant articles and transcripts produced by organizations and publications in the U.S. and in other countries (Fahy & Nisbet,