Henrietta Lacks Informed Consent
Henrietta 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. It was not until the scientists required DNA data from these cells that they sought out whose cells these belong to. After finding out that …show more content…
Hence, the question is asked whether or not the HeLas cells belong to the family. From the Radiolab’s podcast “Henrietta Lacks”, the family members didn’t even know of these cells until a few decades after. Furthermore, they weren’t even able to understand the concept of Henrietta Lacks’ cells, and instead thought that there existed clones of Henrietta Lacks. The lack of informed consent is quite evident in this case, and the family member were experiencing emotional pains too as a result.
I believe that the family members should have a say whether or not they have ownership of the cells. Henrietta Lacks’ consent was taken away from her, and so the next best case is to allow the family members to decide whether or not they give consent to the HeLa cells. Similar to the rule-utilitarian, if we were to disregard this case of informed consent, then what’s not to say we can violate someone else’s informed consent for another justifiable reason? This would lead to a slippery slope that could increase the lack of informed consents for patients. However, I, at the same time, understand that this is a very unique case and the cells are doing much more good than harm. So with the view of act-utilitarian, perhaps compromising by allowing the family members to have some legal ownership over the research results that were accomplished by the HeLa cells would be better than the family members having full ownership of the HeLa
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1147 Words | 5 PagesHeLa cells were used in all kinds of research and cure many diseases. They were used in the first mission to space to see what would happen to cells in zero gravity, they were a very important part to finding the polio vaccine, they were used in cloning, gene mapping and also in vitro fertilization (History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places/ Smithsonian). Henrietta never had claim to her cell and what they did until 20 years after she died and finally, even after efforts to keep it hiding, in 1970s her real name started to leak out into the
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611 Words | 3 PagesHeLa cells were taken from Henrietta unbeknownst to her by George Gey, a cell biologist at Johns Hopkins hospital, when she went in for a biopsy of the tumor growing inside of her. Today, those cells have been crucial in the development of the polio vaccine, aided scientists in learning more about the secrets of cancer, helped in cloning and gene mapping, and have ultimately, been sold by the billions. Even still, Henrietta was buried in an unmarked grave.
Henrietta Lacks: Her Cells In The 1950's And Today
734 Words | 3 PagesThese cells (nicknamed HeLa to protect Henriettas identity) reproduced infinitely like no other. George Gey put HeLa in culture which is cells that are removed from a plant or animal then are put into an artificial environment that is sterile warm and fed with the utmost of vigilance with medium(Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. ). Medium what the cells are fed with were made up of multiple things, because scientists back then used all kinds of things for medium but George Gey used chicken blood, special salts and placenta(Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. ).
Henrietta Lacks Essay
672 Words | 3 PagesThe Fluidity of Henrietta Lacks. Gender Norms & Racial Bias in the study of the Modern “Henrietta Lacks” Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman whose cancer cells were the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research. An immortalized cell line will reproduce indefinitely under specific conditions, and the HeLa cell line continues to be a source of invaluable medical data to present day. Lacks was the unwitting source of these cells from a tumor biopsied during treatment for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. in 1951. The cells were then cultured by George Otto Gey who created the cell line known as HeLa, which is still
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
585 Words | 3 PagesWithin the novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks written by Rebecca Skloot, Lacks and her family face many adversities. One adversity major mistreatment of Henrietta is while she's in the care of Dr. Gey. During her struggles Dr. Gey was removing tissue samples without informing Lacks his full intentions which was very wrong, but the arrival of Henrietta's cells proved to be vital in the advancement of the Science and medical fields. A sudden boom of new scientific research, and medical breakthroughs were now within in reach. One example of a major solution solved by HeLa cells was the expense of culturing cells, before Scientist would have to kill monkeys to obtain cells in order to run neutralization tests, this proved to be costly and
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?
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1071 Words | 5 PagesWho 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.
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795 Words | 4 PagesGey took a tissue sample from her, and scientists who were making discoveries obviously benefitted financially from Henrietta's cells since they were making profit from their creations. So the Lacks family was enraged when they found out that people were profiting from their mother's cells that Dr. Gey stole. They felt that since Henrietta was their mother, they owned the HeLa cells and the hospital did not have the right to experiment on the cells without their consent. They thought that they should at least get compensation for the scientific discoveries. That brings up the question of who owns the cells and whether or not the family should be making any
How Did Henrietta Lacks Use Hela Cells In Biomedical Research
1938 Words | 8 PagesThere is an undeniable interweaving between the histories of medicine and biomedical research. The two intricate stories can be viewed as one positive history which has brought overall beneficial outcomes for the general well-being of society. However, there is an often overlooked component, one of medical exploitation and manipulation for the purpose of biomedical advances, that is interlaced within these histories. This history is epitomized by the widespread use of HeLa cells in biomedical research. HeLa cells are the first immortal line of human cells, and since their discovery in 1951 have been “the standard laboratory workhorse” (Skloot 4).
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Essay
956 Words | 4 PagesOne of the ironies explored in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is the dichotomy between the vast value of the HeLa cell line—which has been used in the development of the polio vaccine, nuclear bomb testing, the
Henrietta Lacks Impact On Modern Medicine
738 Words | 3 PagesThe cells John Hopkins took from Henrietta’s tumor helped launch a multibillion-dollar industry, yet her family had no money (Monsen, 2011, p.2). “In the past sixty-three years several scientists have won Nobel prizes for research on HeLa Cells.” Henrietta’s genome wasn’t the first to be published. Unlike Henrietta, the other patients gave consent for the doctors to take samples (Barone, 2014,
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700 Words | 3 PagesParticipation Portfolio 1 Asst 3: Henrietta Lacks Discussion Questions Please answers each of the following questions, and be prepared to discuss in class 1. Please outline the history of Henrietta Lacks 's tissue cells. Who did what with the cells, when, where and for what purpose? Who benefited, scientifically, medically, and monetarily?
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.
Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Essay
919 Words | 4 PagesIn the case of Henrietta Lacks and her family, the mistreatment of doctors and lack of informed consent defined nearly 60 years of the family’s history. Henrietta Lacks and her children had little to no information about serious medical procedures and the use of Henrietta’s cells in research. Henrietta’s cells launched a multibillion-dollar industry without her consent and doctors even took advantage of her children’s lack of education to continue their research without questions: “[Doctor] did not explain why he was having someone draw blood from Deborah… he wrote a phone number and told her to use it for making more appointments to give more blood” (188). Deborah did not have the knowledge to understand the demands or requests the doctors made of her, and the doctors did not inform her explicitly.
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