ipl-logo

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

419 Words2 Pages

In her nonfiction piece The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot explores the issue of patient compensation. Her intertwining of court cases, expert opinions from the medical community and examples like Ted Slavin. Skloot advocates for both ethical practice and scientific advancement in the medical field. Fully inform the patient this includes letting the patient know if they have unique tissues or what they are studying or testing for in the tissues. Have the patient sign a consent form when they are lucid. In the novel, the Mo cell line is an example of when Golde, a doctor let his greed for money interfere with his medical practice. Golde had not fully informed John Moore of his unique tissues and the massive monetary value they had. Eventually, Moore finds out and sues Golde. Eventually, Moore ended up at the Supreme Court of California and Skloot states they ruled in Golde’s favor “but the judge did agree with him on two counts: lack of informed consent, and breach fiduciary duty … The court said doctors said researchers should disclose financial interests in patient tissues”(Skloot 205). …show more content…

This allowed the vaccine to be cheap to research and have a low cost. Since it was cheap to research Albert Sabin was able to create an oral polio vaccine. The oral vaccine is now used to vaccinate people in developing countries. Around the 1950s there was a polio epidemic and the cheap cost made it available to everyone, and since 1979 there have been no reported cases of polio in the United States. It should be disclosed that at the time patenting a biological agent was unheard

Show More
Related

  • A Comparison Of Skid Row Cancer Study And The Henrietta Lacks

    588 Words  | 3 Pages

    There have been many conflicts in the past in the medical field about violating patients’ privacy rights. In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, there is an issue where her cells are taken to check what she went to the hospital for, yet, her cells weren’t only checked for that. Her cells were being transported, sold, and even injected into other people for experiments without any form of consent. The Skid Row Cancer Study and the Henrietta Lacks study are similar in the way that they both have some ethical issues having to do with consent. Around the 1950’s, Dr. Perry Hudson (a medical researcher from Columbia University) wanted to perform some prostate biopsies to see who had prostate cancer in Manhattan on 1,200.

    Read More

  • Phineas Gage And Henrietta Lacks Loss Of Sacrifice For Exploration

    893 Words  | 4 Pages

    Lacks, was a woman who had her life taken by cancer. However doctors and scientists began to notice that her cells continuously produce (to this day in fact). Henrietta’s family was not informed about her “immortal cells” until 20 years after her death. To all readers disappointment, her family didn’t even get a portion, or even a small percent of the money earned from using her cell line to make various medical advances. These include the polio vaccine, the cancer drug tamoxifen, chemotherapy, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and treatments for influenza, leukemia, and Parkinson’s disease (from article).

    Read More

  • The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

    1263 Words  | 6 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

    1514 Words  | 7 Pages

    Throughout the Rebecca Skloot’s book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, she described her investigation into the life of Henrietta Lacks, her immortal cell line, the ethical violations surrounding her case, as well as the major contributions to modern medicine and research her case provided. During the time of Henrietta’s treatment, both medical and research ethics were quite different; many values such as autonomy, justice, and beneficence were not as enforced, and were applied differently throughout different institutions and individuals of different demographics. Though investigating her case and other important cases surrounding the use of HeLa cells, Skloot acknowledges the unethical circumstances which filled Henrietta’s case and

    Read More

  • How Did Henrietta Lacks Use Ethical Testing For African Americans Unethical

    485 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the nineteenth and twentieth century new ideas of science were being put in place to help treat different diseases. Scientist did not know about how the human body operated and what caused certain illnesses, so they needed subjects to test in order to diagnose illnesses. In the book, Night Doctor’s, Skloot communicates to an African-American family to gain insight on an individual who contributed largely to research. Henrietta Lacks had cancer and the doctors noticed that there was something special about her cells. Henrietta died and they took her cells to help treat blindness, polio, and learn about cancer.

    Read More

  • The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

    1102 Words  | 5 Pages

    However, she along with her entire family had absolutely no knowledge of the use of her cells. This sparks the ethical controversy that surrounds the medical field, when and how should human

    Read More

  • The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

    1480 Words  | 6 Pages

    The life and death of Henrietta Lacks is a cautionary tale that reflects the inherent contradiction between the stated purpose of medical research to provide benefit to humankind and the reality of blatant profiteering in the name of the advancement of

    Read More

  • Why Is Henrietta Lacks Unethical

    428 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The historic dream of public health…is a dream of social justice” (Health Affairs, Vol. 25, Number 4). In the story of Henrietta Lacks, it is hard to say that the use of her cervical tissue is ethical, because it is not. Henrietta was diagnosed with cervical cancer and Dr. Gey decided to isolate those cells. When he found that these cells could grow in a culture medium and last, he shared them with the world of science.

    Read More

  • The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

    1096 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the reading of Skloot, the big issue is the taking of Henrietta’s cells without her or family’s knowledge which is a violation of something very important and secret to Americans. The right to privacy is so important because a patient needs to know that a hospital, doctor, and nurse can be trusted with their medical information whether it is a small medical issue, or something major and embarrassing. You want to know that that information is not going to be out for the world to know or that information is going to be used somewhere else without your knowledge. In Provision 1 of the Guide to the Code of Ethics for Nurses, it is stated that “worth or value that people have simply because they are human not by virtue of any social standing, ability to evoke admiration, or any particular set of talents, skills, or powers.” (Flower, pp.8)

    Read More

  • What Are The Ethical Issues In The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

    1123 Words  | 5 Pages

    Throughout time as human population has continued to grow, there is an increasing need for a societal structure that addresses large health concerns as well as maintain infrastructure to provide health related services to the public. In our society today this is known as public health. Public health is the umbrella term for all services, preventions, and promotions of health related factors that directly relate to humans and animals as well as the environment around them. Due to the wide spectrum of responsibilities related to public health, many stories have arisen that directly relate to the abilities and processes that exist under it. The book called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks directly relates to the ethical aspect of public health.

    Read More

  • The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Analysis

    804 Words  | 4 Pages

    However, some may disagree, “Dr. Hagiwara felt his family had an economic interest in the new cell line since he had proposed the project and his mother had provided the original cells” (Andrews). Stating that people’s body parts are apart of their personal property and need to be treated as so. That without the persons who donated the body parts there wouldn’t be any tissues or cells to help aid in research anyways. On the other hand, “Dr. Royston disagreed with Dr. Hagiwara, since he and his colleges had invented the procedure and created the parent cell line that made the production of human monoclonal antibodies possible” (Andrews). In the end, there will always be new and incurable diseases like that of my grandfather’s Parkinson’s.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Hela Cells

    595 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ever since a sample of Henrietta Lacks’ tissue was taken from her, without permission, the world of medicine has evolved, and multiple discoveries have been made. From the polio vaccine to figuring out how many chromosomes each human holds, HeLa cells have had some involvement. But all of this research came from a result of a violation to the medical code of ethics. The question of whether or not all research and findings that were a result of a violation of the medical code of ethics should be destroyed, has become very difficult to answer as we make more and more advances in the medical field. Personally, I believe that the way Henrietta’s cells were collected was a violation, however destroying all of the findings from it would be more detrimental to society than beneficial.

    Read More

  • Henrietta Lacks Discussion Questions

    700 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Henrietta Lacks And Ethics

    462 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Essay

    919 Words  | 4 Pages

    An essential part of modern society relied on trust, especially the trust of doctors and scientists. People had the right to make an informed decision about their bodies and body parts. People had a right to their body parts, both attached and cell samples collected by doctors. The actions that the medical professions made will continue to affect future generations in both positive and negative ways. In the contemporary biographical novel, the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot used logical opinions to argue about the importance of consent to reveal the lack of morality from those in the medical field which continues to persist today.

    Read More

More about The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

Open Document