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The Ethical Story Of Henrietta Lacks And Hela Cells

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1951, Henrietta Lacks learned that she had cervical cancer, from which she passed away from at the age of 31. Without the consent of Henrietta or her family, tissue was taken from her body and virtually made immortal at Johns Hopkins. For years, scientists had been trying to breed a cell line on which the medical industry could test in ways that they couldn’t do with the living. Henrietta Lacks was the key that unlocked the door, leading to decades of medical advancements, including helping cure polio, influenza, many other diseases. Her cells even went to space. Just about everyone was profiting from HeLa cells except her own family. Throughout the book we can follow the interesting stories of Henrietta’s children and the scientist who worked with HeLa cells. Many ethical questions were raised and we can engage in the argument that the author poses. Is consent from patients’ necessary to proceed with testing on patients who are unaware of the procedures being done on them? Researches at Hopkins, frequently performed test on their patients, for example injecting them with cancerous cells to see how their bodies would react. Since they saw nothing wrong doctors …show more content…

Back in the day doctors believed that non-doctors could never understand since they didn’t go to college or medical school. In result doctors never explained to patient’s their procedures, and they weren’t forced to by any law. Hopkins was one of the few hospitals that treated black patients. The Lack’s and poor uneducated black families went to Hopkins and put all their faith in the doctors. They had no idea that they were being experimented on. Doctors thought, since patients were receiving quality treatment they thought it was okay to experiment on them in return. The doctors at Hopkins took advantage of their patients because they knew they were uneducated and they wanted to advance their personal

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