Skloot Moral And Ethical Issues

After reading this case I was terribly shocked about the fact that something like this could happen in our medical history. I couldn’t believe how a patient could be neglected so much. Based on the material that we have learned the lack of ethical theory of deontology in Dr. Evan was disturbing. As a doctor Dr. Evan’s role is to care for patients, keep them away from harm and prolong their life. Though in the trial he stated as if he didn’t care.

But 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

We can partially blame the atrocious experimental research conducted by the doctors exposed by Skloot on the era of American culture in which their research took place in. A time in America’s history where places like The Hospital of the Negro Insane and the belief that your doctor is always right existed and patient advocacy and informed written consent forms did not. Individual and population rights were considered a joke for African American at this time. Throughout the book, black Americans were victims of medical experimentation undisclosed to them. The same is true in the time Henrietta Lacks spent in John Hopkins hospital.

Doctors, one side of the coin they are viewed as the ones that can cure the sick with their knowledge, the ones that are supposed to help them get better. The other side they are feared and are avoided at all cost by some. Doctors have this bad reputation about them because sometimes they don’t even tell their patients what is wrong with them. Or the patients themselves don’t even question the doctors because they went to school and have a prestigious piece of paper. In “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot, she describes benevolent deception, which doctors had no trouble of doing in the mid-century, as the doctors keeping their patients in the dark.

This made the rest of the scientific world realized they'd just made a gigantic breakthrough in medical technology. Up until this time, scientists were unable to grow human cells in the culture of a Petri dish, but Henrietta’s cells multiplied at a feverish pace. Furthermore, increasing the amount of deadly cancer in her body. Henrietta’s cells also continued to grow and multiply outside her body in laboratory conditions.. Henrietta died at the age of 31, leaving behind a husband and five young children.

Her sample tissues were known as HeLa cells. Skloot purpose is to create awareness among the audience about

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.

The first direct violation of ethical principles with Lacks was the breach of autonomy. During her treatment at Johns Hopkins hospital in 1951, she had been informed her diagnosis was indeed cancer. Her

With regard to coercion, North Carolina’s Commissioner of Public Welfare urged the state to follow up with people who were receiving assistance from the Aid to Dependent Child Program (243). This program targeted people who were already sterilized to see if other family members would also benefit (243) as was the case with Ann. These people were taken advantage of and their natural ability to have children was taken away from them under the guise of ridding the population of unfavorable characteristics that these people just so happened to have. They were also subject to immense psychological, emotional, and physical harm for seemingly no reason. Doctors must recite and uphold the Hippocratic Oath which states that one must “do no harm” and ethics was a large topic of debate during the 1960s and early 70s after a slew of unethical experiments had taken place i.e. The Humphreys, Stanford, and Milgram’s studies.

This study was passed and funded through Congress; however they did not know the full story. The wrong in this study was that the men did not give informed consent and did not receive any treatment. The men were studied till their autopsy, which is obviously death. This sparked much controversy and changed human experimentation forever.

2015 Read and Response: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Throughout the Lacks’ family history there has been nothing more but absence of information and deceitfulness. The prolonged journey of finding out who exactly Deborah’s mother was and how she changed science was all but easy. One of the most common messages throughout the book was the conflict between individual rights and scientific exploration from high, authoritative figures such as scientists, doctors and the research community.

In regards to case ‘The Court Was Appalled’, I have to agree with the ruling of the court’s decision. The physicians’ obligation to properly examine his patients such as in the case of Tomick’s breast the first time was complete negligence. The physician did not complete a thorough examination, and then the patient had to wait months to be reevaluated again. The Ohio Court of Appeals made the right decision in favoring the patient. If the proper care was given early on the mass size potentially could have been prevented.

It It f It frustrates me what Dr. Anna Pou had to go through with the lawsuits of the Memorial Medical Center incident. As Healthcare professionals, being sued for making the rightful decision for the patient and the hospital is unjust. Healthcare professionals like Dr. Pou, have taken the Hippocratic oath, and one of the promises made within that oath is “first, do no harm”. Hospital’s should not be so quick to make such an important decision of pressing charges to their faculty; more trust should be placed in them. In addition, she made it clear her intentions were just to ‘‘help’’ patients ‘‘through their pain,’’ on national television.

Chris McCandless, whose story is analyzed in Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, is a young adult who decides to leave his known habits and material belongings behind and live a completely self-sufficient life in the wilderness, a choice which ultimately leads to his death. In doing that, he also forfeits his family and friends. With that in mind, a question can be posed regarding the ethics of said behavior. As a childless, single and financially independent man, Chris McCandless has absolute ownership of his body and thus his decision to continue doing a sport that he knows can kill him is ethically defensible.

Also, while in the interrogation with Davey, the stepson of the deceased, Dr. Brennan accuses the adolescent of murder with no hint of sympathy for the boy who just lost a father figure. Dr. Brennan has many encounters such as this one with individuals that show her lack of social etiquette for delicate subjects. The way in which the doctor interacts with others and expresses a lack of interest for other’s feelings shows how popular culture portrays scientists as being unempathetic and socially