Arguments Against Altruism

Dr. George Gey was responsible for Henrietta’s treatment and as a result, gave him access to her cells; this allowed Gey to carry out tests on Henrietta’s cancer cells without her knowledge. This led to George Gey taking and culturing Henrietta’s without permission. That’s when Gey noticed something unusual about the cells, Henrietta’s cultured cells began to expand at a rapid rate, “They kept growing like nothing anyone had seen, doubling their numbers every twenty-four hours, stacking hundreds on top of hundreds, accumulating by the millions” (page 57). This demonstrates the growth of Henrietta’s cells and the importance of this discovery. Gey told his closest colleagues about his discovery which led to him distributing the cells to different

While performing the treatment Dr. Lawrence Wharton Jr. collected Henrietta’s normal and cancerous cell and sent them to George Gey, who was the researcher collecting any type of cells that the hospital would provide for his research, this was all done without Henrietta’s knowledge. In the 1950’s segregating still existed, and “Many scientist believed that since patients were treated for free in the public wards, it was fair to use them as research subjects as a form of payment.” (Pg. 30) Henrietta had a painful death in 1951, due to all the tumors that had spread throughout her body, leaving her 5 children without a

Henrietta Lacks died never knowing the impact her life would have on the world of medicine. A poor, black woman living in Baltimore, Maryland in the 1950s, Henrietta was diagnosed with cervical cancer and died only nine short months after her diagnosis at the age of thirty-one. The mother of five children, Henrietta most likely died thinking her family would be her legacy. Little did she know her doctor at John Hopkins hospital, George Gey, had taken some of her cells before she died. With Henrietta’s cells, Dr. Gey was finally able to achieve a goal he had been working toward for decades – creating the first line of immortal cells (Freeman). These cells have been used for countless scientific research and have solidified Henrietta Lacks’ place

The main ethical situation that happened was that Henrietta’s cell were taken from her body without her permission. Henrietta never signed anything stating that they could take cells from her body. She did sign an operation permit. The operation permit stated, “I hereby give consent to the staff of The John Hopkins Hospital to perform any operative procedures and under any anesthetic either local or general that many deem necessary in the proper surgical and treatment of:” (Skloot 31). This operational permit did not give doctors permission to take cells from her.

As for the family members who shall receive benefits, the children and grandchildren of Henrietta, for example Lawrence, Zakariyya, and Davon, should receive actual monetary and health benefits. As for the descendants after Henrietta’s grandchildren, they should receive at the least free health care. This can be compared to the health insurance families of American soldiers receive, VA Health Care. These families receive these aids because their loved ones have risked their lives for the good of the country. For the families of Henrietta the same principle applies; Henrietta’s cells have saved and continue to save so many lives in this country and others. As for the amount of money to be bestowed, that can be decided once the corporations who shall compensate the Lacks are identified. Often times when medical research and the term compensation come into contact many academics claim it is the end of scientific study. Scientists worry that stringent regulations requiring specific consent for any future uses of bio specimens could hamstring

Although she was taken from the world too soon, Henrietta Lacks was a warm hearted woman, and though unbeknownst to her, she would pave the way for the medical field and greatly expand our understanding of one of the nation’s

They thought the doctors were still trying to fix her,” (Skloot 65). Henrietta’s family is still being treated poorly today, being lied to and never got a profit from the cells. “’She’s the most important person in the world and her family living in poverty. If our mother so important to science, why can’t we get health insurance?’”(Skloot 168). In fact, Henrietta herself is one of the major reasons the debate on whether it should be legal to cell organs and cells is a debate today. “HeLa cells as the springboard to launch the first industrial-scale for-profit cell distribution center,” (Skloot 101). Although there are several arguments in the debate over selling body parts, three key arguments deal with the topics of money, helping others, and personal choice. Considering all of the topics, the selling of body parts for profit should be

I hope George Grey burn in hell. If he wasn’t dead already, I’d take a black pitchfork and stick it up his ass’”(Skloot 424). Needless to say, Zakariyya was not pleased with the Hopkins hospital as they took his mother’s cells and profited off them. But to a scientist, this discovery was a magnificent success to the medical community. As Biologist J.Douglas put it in his journal “Nature”, “It is twenty-one years since George Gey established the famous HeLa cells in culture. It has been estimated that the weight of these cells in the world today exceeds that of the American negro from whose cervical tumour they originated. That lady has achieved true immortality, both in the test-tube and in the hearts and minds of scientist the world over, since the value of HeLa cells in research, diagnosis, etc., is inestimable. (Skloot 302)”. Douglas went on to say how it was a misfortune that the public was unaware of the name of the woman whose cells they originally belonged to. As you can see, from a scientist perspective, the story of Henrietta Lacks and HeLa was a huge success, while from the family of Henrietta it was a hinderance on

After Gey succeeded to find the immortal human cells, he started to sell HeLa cells without Henrietta’s consent. “Gey sells HeLa cells to researchers in Texas, India, New York, and many others place” (Skloot 84). He did not give any credit to Henrietta. He only told Henrietta that her cells will help many people in the future. “In fact, in the future HeLa cells were contribute into polio vaccine; develop drugs for treating herpes, leukemia, influenza, hemophilia, and Parkinson’s disease” (Skloot 22). Hela cells were also used in cancer treatment and were the first cells that were shot into space.

Doctors are always trying to discover new cures for the diseases out there. Sometimes doctors feel like if they find new vaccines, or a new disease they feel empowered because they’re the first to find it out and to them they feel like they're one of the best doctors out there. In this book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” the doctors take some of Henrietta cells and start doing some research on them to see if they’re immortal. To get more research done on them, they send them all over the world to different doctors and researchers, little did they know HeLa cells were Henrietta Lacks.You see the doctors are are using her cells for research and they never even told her family that part of her was still alive. They just wanted to take as many and see what they can come up with. And with that being said I am against the fact that they misused her cells, and did not consult the family about it or at

The main ethical issues in this case is that researches at Johns Hopkins Hospital used Henrietta’s cell in multiple researches and send her cells to other researchers around the world without her family’s consent. Moreover, the Lackes themselves were used in medical research without informed consent, and Henrietta’s medical records were release to journalists without her family knowing.

The truth is the doctors that took Henrietta’s cells were doing it for a good cause. They didn’t do it to ruin her and her family’s life, they did it to help people and save lives. There were no laws prohibiting the taking of one’s cells, in fact in a later Supreme Court of California ruling, it was actually defended. When tissues are removed from your body, with or without consent, any claim to ownership

In the example with the HeLa cells, a great debate was raised when the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was published. The debate centered around the lack of information of where the cells came from, who should have known about the original harvesting, and the lack of compensation for Henrietta’s family once the cells started generating income. Also discussed was the tendency of the medical community to

The social contract of nursing is important because it reflects the nursing's code of ethics, which is to provide care to all who are in need, regardless of their cultural, social, or economic standing. The social contract exists because we rely on a guideline to continue to provide ethical care that is within our scope of practice. Unfortunately, in Rebecca Skloot’s (2010) book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” there were many ethical violations throughout the whole process about the Henrietta Lacks’ cells (HeLa). The author reveals the story about the life of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman who was diagnosed with a fast-growing cervical cancer at a young age. The cells retrieved from her cervical tumor became the first immortal cell that could survive in the lab and replicate continuously without dying. Without the consent of Henrietta Lacks and her family, these cells later became key components to the development of many groundbreaking inventions such as the polio vaccine and in vitro fertilization. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the social covenant of nursing in relation to the ethical issues behind the use of the HeLa cells without the patient’s and her family’s consent.

Third, although the public health discovery of the HeLa cells improved the quality of life for many families/communities and the overall nation, it did not positively influence the quality of life of Henrietta Lacks or her family. Henrietta Lacks cells were not only taken from her body once and sent to unauthorized holders, but a second time after she passed away from cervical cancer. Neither Henrietta nor her family had given consent for Dr. Gey or the coroner to remove cells from her body and send them off for research