Henrietta Lacks Ethics

In the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, the author demonstrates the harsh realities that many African Americans faced in the medical and scientific field during the mid 20th century. The author shows the unjust practices of this time period through interviews with the Lacks family and medical professionals. These harsh realities are proven when Skloot talks to Henrietta’s family. Henrietta’s husband, Day, explains how they took samples from Henrietta’s body without consent when Skloot writes, “Day clenched his remaining three teeth. "I didn't sign no papers," he said.

Henrietta Lacks was a thirty-one year old African American who had five kids and married her cousin David Lacks. Henrietta was diagnosed with cervical cancer, the doctors never informed Mrs. Lacks that her cells were to be tested on. The Lacks family was certainly not advised that Henrietta 's cells were growing at an incredible rate. Because of this, the cancer cells were shipped and bought across the world. The last 8 months of Henrietta’s death became a piece of history nobody would ever want to forget.

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).

Before 1962, there were no laws or guidelines that doctors had to follow when taking and using human cells. Ruth Faden, director of Johns Hopkins University says, "It's a sad commentary on how the biomedical research community thought about research in the 50's, but it was not at all uncommon for physicians to conduct research on patients without their knowledge or consent" (Skloot, "Cells," 2001). The researchers were not trying to be immoral, but they did not see anything wrong with taking tissue samples without consent, as long as the patient was not hurt. During that era, the researchers would forget about the patient once they had obtained a cell sample. They did not think about the fact that when conducting experiments, the cells they were using came from actual people.

Is it right for one's life to be manipulated for the use of scientific research or is it just a evasion on the person's privacy. Henrietta Lacks was a African American with cells that intrigued many people, she was diagnosed with cancer leaving her to be cared for at her local hospital, where she would later die due to the extremity of the illness. While at the hospital she was unaware that the doctors there were experimenting on her taking cell samples from her body, to help find a resolution to multiple diseases. The people who examined Henrietta manipulated her and the rest of her family to gain information on her cellular structure to be ahead of others looking to achieve the same objective. Henrietta Lacks cells should have never been evaluated because it's an evasion of her freedom, a danger to her personal health, and cause conflicts.

However, “the Lacks family has come to be proud of Henrietta’s scientific contributions” (Longwill, 2010). Even though they have accepted the existence of the cells and are glad the cells have benefitted so many people and they no longer expect any kind of monetary compensation, it was still unethical for the doctor to take and use the cells without Henrietta’s consent. While it is too late to get that consent, it is still possible to offer the family some kind of recognition or reimbursement. One way to compensate the family is to properly acknowledge Henrietta; as previously stated, not all scientists know Henrietta’s name.

Science and ethics have been colliding back and forth for centuries. Science want to discover new technologies to help people and for other selfish reason. People want medical help to save their loved ones. Many times scientists have sacrificed the good of a few for the needs of many. In Rebecca Skloot's modern day investigative biography The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot uses Pathos to develop the themes of immorality and unethical behavior of medical science.

The question of ethics has been an ongoing issue. Two things that are very important in medical ethics is morality and religion because this gives the rights to the physician, or doctor and also the relationship between the patient. In the article, The Code of Medical Ethics, a physician/doctor must recognize the responsibility to their patients, as well to society, to other health professionals, and to themselves (Riddick). Most people do not know who Henrietta Lacks is, or know how important her cells are. Unlike most cells, Henrietta’s seemed to be immortal; her cells never died.

Maybe if the family wasn 't poor they would have been able to be rich and not have gone through so much about their mother 's cells. Maybe if they had money when Henrietta was alive none of this would 've

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.

Henrietta Lacks, an African American tobacco farmer from southern Virginia, was diagnosed with cervical cancer at 30 years old. During her treatment at John Hopkins Hospital, one of the doctors took a piece of her tumor without her knowledge or consent and sent it to scientists who had been unsuccessfully attempting to grow tissues in culture for decades. There is no explanation as to why, but her cells never died. To this day they are still alive and have been used throughout the years to great advantages in curing diseases. Henrietta’s cells have played a part in some of the world’s most important medical advances such as the development of the polio vaccine, cloning, vitro fertilization, gene mapping, and they even went up in the first space

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.

Racism in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Imagine your mother, sister, wife, or cousin was diagnosed with cervical cancer and you believed the doctors were doing everything in their power to help her. Only later you discovered her cells were used for research without consent and she was not properly informed of the risks of her treatment due to her race. This story happened and is told by Rebecca Skloot in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Skloot use of narrative and her writing style enhances the understanding of the story. Henrietta Lacks was a young black woman who was diagnosed with cervical cancer at John Hopkins Hospital.

Doctor Myrick uses the principle of utility to defend his immoral actions during the film. The principle of utility is when a person makes a choice that is best for the most amount of people involved in the situation. He uses this tenet when talking to doctor Luthan about the ethical ideas involved in his experiment, because it will save millions despite killing the test subjects that are held beyond their will. In the movie we see signs of hedonism through doctor Myricks actions. His hedonistic views are seen as he tries to find pleasure in the horrible disease of paralysis.

It is clear that it is unfair for Agatha and the twins to be kept as possessions or mere cattle just because of a genetic anomaly. However, this society that uses the Pre-Crime system believes that a few can be sacrificed for the good of the many. This is the main problem with the utilitarianism view; the problem of cost-benefit analysis or the ends-justifies-the-means approach. Because the society in Minority Report trusts in Pre-Crime, they see people as numbers. A few hundred may face bad consequences, but a few million will face good consequences.