Henrietta Lacks Informed Consent
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. Concerned that Henrietta’s cancer cells could infect the scientists that worked with …show more content…
However, the problem with his experiments was that they were conducted without obtaining informed consent from the participants. The patients did not know that Southam was injecting them with cancer cells to see how their bodies would react and had no interest in letting the patients know exactly what he was doing. “The deception was for [Southam’s] benefit- he was withholding information because patients might have refused to participate in the study if they’d known what he was injecting” (Skloot, p. 130). It is morally and ethically wrong to inject human beings with an illness that could eventually cause their death. For such reason, Southam soon was meet with opposition by others in the medical field. Three doctors refused to help Southam continue his experiments because of the unethical way in which the studies were being performed. Eventually, Southam’s unethical experiments were exposed and his license was suspended for a year. The researcher then became president of American Association for Cancer Research. However, because of the fact that Southam’s unethical practice had been exposed The National Institutes of Health (NIH) realized that few of the researchers they funded used no informed consent. So it was then that the NIH decided that any research that was to be funded had to be examined by a separate board to ensure informed consent was provided to the patients who participated in the
A Comparison Of Skid Row Cancer Study And The Henrietta Lacks
588 Words | 3 PagesThere 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.
The Ethical Story Of Henrietta Lacks And Hela Cells
506 Words | 3 PagesJust 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?
What Is The Case Of Henrietta Lacks Unethical
868 Words | 4 PagesAlthough many are unaware of it, scientific ethics have always been a major issue, especially in the United States. This was especially the case of Henrietta Lacks and her family through the early 1950s to present day. Henrietta Lacks hurried into John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland to find out why there was a lump on her cervix. When doctors diagnosed her with cervical cancer, she filled out a form giving consent to let the doctors perform any surgery they deemed necessary. Soon after Henrietta died in October of 1951, her husband, David (Day) Lacks, signed a consent form to let them perform an autopsy on her corpse.
Henrietta Lacks Informed Consent
493 Words | 2 PagesHenrietta Lacks was an African American woman from the 1900s. She was diagnosed with cancer and had her cancer cells cultured without her consent. These cancer cell lines are known as HeLa cell lines and one of the first immortalized cell lines utilized in current medical research. The fundamental issue with Henrietta Lacks’ HeLa cells is that the researchers never obtained consent for the use of these cells; nevertheless, these cells have benefitted greatly for the area of research. Not only were the cells useful for finding treatments for diseases, but the cells were also utilized in space studies too.
Henrietta Lacks Impact On Society
442 Words | 2 PagesIn the 1950s the first ‘immortal’ human cells were grown from a cancerous tissue sample taken from Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman, without her knowledge or consent. She had died shortly after, at the unfortunately early age of 31, of a severe case of cervical cancer. Henrietta had a list of ailments that included neurosyphilis, gonorrhea, and HPV the leading cause of her cervical cancer and, ultimately, her death. The hospital that had diagnosed her cancer, Johns Hopkins, had supposedly been one of the best hospitals in the country, but it participated in discriminatory and amoral research practices when treating African Americans. Not only taking taking Henrietta’s cells without her consent, but injecting them and other cancer cells into patients without their knowledge.
Henrietta Lacks Impact On Modern Medicine
738 Words | 3 PagesA poor black woman named Henrietta Lacks completely transformed the medical field. At the age of 30 she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Although this may have been a tragic time in her life, her death resulted in one of the biggest discoveries in medicine today. Henrietta made a huge impact on modern medicine through the use of her HeLa cells. Henrietta was born on August 18, 1920.
Henrietta Lacks Research Papers
585 Words | 3 PagesImmortal Henrietta Informed consent is an ethically important aspect of medical care; patients must be fully informed of any and all possible risks and benefits from receiving medical treatment, participating in medical research as a subject, or donating live tissues to be studied. Only after receiving and understanding all of the necessary information can a patient give consent; if the patient does not consent, for whatever reason, then it is both illegal and unethical to follow through with treatment, research, or taking samples (O’Neill, 2003). However, particularly in regard to taking tissue samples, some doctors seem to think that what the patient doesn’t know won’t hurt them. One example of this is Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells.
Henrietta Lacks Violation Of Autonomy At Johns Hopkins
1435 Words | 6 PagesHenrietta Lacks was treated in a hospital as another data point to be mapped. According to Kant, morally good people should never treat someone as a means to an end. In Chapter 3, Skloot states that Henrietta did sign a waiver form that allowed the physician to perform any necessary procedure, but it never stated her agreeance to Johns Hopkins taking a sample of her cervical tissue or that she would be informed of any procedures. In fact, no one ever told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting samples. The samples were taken for Gey and his research purpose of growing immortal human cells.
Argumentative Essay On Henrietta Lacks
649 Words | 3 PagesIn the Washington Post Blog Steve Hendrix asserts “ Those vaccines that could have spared Henrietta's Lacks were developed from her own cells”( Henrietta Cervical Cancer). Scientist believe that her cells are immortal because of the many diseases that she had. Hendrix explains “ Henrietta had human papilloma virus which is a sexually transmitted disease”. Henrietta also had other diseases that were inside of her. Scientist believe that since she had so many different disease that this is why her cells were immortal.
Tissue In The 1950s To The 21st Century
381 Words | 2 PagesWhen Henrietta’s case is revealed to people, their first response is usually: “Wasn’t it illegal for doctors to take Henrietta’s cells without her knowledge and consent? Don’t doctors have to tell you when they use your cells in research?” Well...no. At least, not in the 1950s to the early 21st century. People are often confused on how they should feel about this situation, which is understandable.
Argumentative Essay On Henrietta Lacks
239 Words | 1 PagesThe cells that came from Henrietta Lack’s tumor were extremely strange, normal cells go through something called apoptosis, programed cell death, the cells from Lack’s tumor did not go through this process and continued to divided continually. Doctors and lab pathologists
Essay On Tuskegee Study
546 Words | 3 PagesBut unfortunately, the experiment was also never clearly explained to them, they had thought it was just the best possible treatment expected to cure the sickness they might have had. Many unethical practices were evident in this study, in this case, the most important one was informed consent, which is a consent given by a patient to a doctor for treatment with full knowledge of the possible risks and benefits. None of the participants in the Tuskegee study
Summary: The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks
1705 Words | 7 PagesFrom the Henrietta situation it seems that more change gave been implemented to fix this major issue. But with every situation, there are loopholes that are evident in these consents. Hoeyer and Hogle state “Absence of proper consent is currently being construed as an ‘intolerable.’ Policies enforcing the consent requirement assume that there is a universal subject, that all subjects weigh information and make “informed” choices similarly, and that they “voluntarily” participate with similar expectations” (352). The question of ethics that is raised is what rights do individuals have over their own blood, tissue and cells when it is being used in research.
Henrietta Lacks Discussion Questions
700 Words | 3 PagesWhat 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.
Henrietta Lacks And Ethics
462 Words | 2 PagesThe 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.
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