Henrietta Lacks Ethical Issues

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is the story of Hela cells and the women and family behind them. HeLa cells are the cells that have helped scientists all around the world discover cures and vaccines that have saved thousands of lives. But before they did all those things, they were inside a woman, named Henrietta Lacks, and were taken from her without her knowledge. Her family would not know about her cells until years after her death and millions of dollars in revenue gained from the HeLa cells. At the time doctors did what was considered common practice but did they cross a line? Or were the amazing scientific achievements enough to excuse the violation of personal privacy? Despite good intentions doctors should never have taken Henrietta’s cells without her consent, and furthermore her family deserves compensation for the work those cells have helped accomplish, and the sometimes horrible circumstances they have had to deal with because of the cells.

Henrietta only knew about this outcome at the end of radium treatment when she asked if she “could bear another child” (Skloot, 2010, p.47). And although it was stated in her record that she was informed of the side effects of the treatment, it obviously was not delivered clearly or education may not even have been given.

When the cells finally began growing in Gey’s lab it was seen as a huge advance in the world of science, seeing as no one had succeeded beforehand, this was a great accomplishment on his part. However, Henrietta was never told of this or how important her cells had become, she simply continued living without knowing that the cancerous cells inside her were continuing to grow despite receiving “treatment” from the doctors. Her only treatment was a small patch of radiation sewn directly into her cervix on the area where the tumor had appeared, after some tests showed that the tumor had disappeared she continued with her normal life of farming, raising her children, and enjoying life. Henrietta never complained about any side effects of the radiation, however, it eventually would make her infertile and cause her skin on her torso to turn black.

There are four principles of ethics: Respect for autonomy, Beneficence, Non maleficence and Justice. This four principles offers comprehensive thought of the ethical issues in clinical settings (Beauchamp and Childress 2001 cited in UK Clinical ethics Network 2011).

n this unit, students will demonstrate their understanding of the cell cycle and mitosis, gathering evidence to support explanations for appropriate cell function and reproduction. Students will first compare normal and cancer cells in different stages of mitosis using a virtual lab. Students will then read portions of the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks in order to gather evidence about a specific type of cancer. They will then share more information on causes and risks for various forms of cancer – gathered from research and from an interview of a person impacted by cancer – with their classmates. Finally, students will use this information to develop an explanation, with evidence, for why certain types of cancer are more prevalent

Henrietta Lacks, a woman whose cells have made millions of dollars, but most people don’t know her name, or her story. “She’s usually identified as Helen Lane, but often she has no name at all. She’s simply called HeLa, the code name given to the world’s first immortal human cells – her cells cut from her cervix just months before she died. Her real name is Henrietta Lacks,” (Skloot 1). Through the last few months of her life, she had major struggles with hospitals and scientists. Henrietta was in serious pain throughout the last few months, and the doctor treated her as a specimen. “Henrietta is still a miserable specimen,” (Skloot 66). Another major flaw in Henrietta story is the fact that her family was barely told of her condition of cervical

In the novel, the immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Henrietta was a young black woman of 5 children whose cancerous cells were taken out without her knowledge. Those cells later became one of the most important tools in medicine. The case of John Moore vs. Regents of the University of California has similar ethical issues as present in the novel.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of Henrietta Lacks. In the early 1951 Henrietta discovered a hard lump on the left of the entrance of her cervix, after having unexpected vaginal bleeding. She visited the Johns Hopkins hospital in East Baltimore, which was the only hospital in their area where black patients were treated. The gynecologist, Howard Jones, indeed discovers a tumor on her cervix, which he takes a biopsy off to sent it to the lab for diagnosis. In February 1951 Henrietta was called by Dr. Jones to tell about the biopsy results: “Epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix, Stage I”, in other words, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Before her first radium treatment, surgeon dr.

Henrietta Lacks had cervical cancer and Doctor TeLinda took samples of her cells without telling her or her family. Doctor TeLinda put the samples in a tubes with the help of Doctor Gey exchange for same of Lacks cells, they named them “HeLa” (Skloot 41). A young woman named Rebecca Skloot found out about Henrietta Lacks, Skloot was only sixteen. After research into Lacks, her family, and “HeLa” cells for about ten years, she wrote an award-winning book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Skloot was a winner of several awards, including the 2010 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Nonfiction, the 2010 Wellcome Trust Book Prize, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Award for Excellence in Science Writing, the 2011

Due to severe pains, on January twenty-ninth, nineteen fifty-one, Henrietta went to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland where she was diagnosed with cervical cancer by Dr. Howard Jones. She was a patient in the “colored ward”. During her eight month long radiation treatments, doctors removed two dime-sized samples of her cancer-ridden cervix without ever informing her, asking her permission and letting her family know. Henrietta Lacks died of cancer a few months after her diagnosis on October fourth, nineteen fifty-one, at Johns Hopkins Hospital at the age of thirty-one, leaving behind her husband

In 1951 there was a young black lady who was named Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks was a tobacco farmer in Clover, Virginia. Her mother died giving birth and her father moved the family to Clover, where the children were distributed among some of the close relatives. In January of 1951 she went to John Hopkins hospital, which was the only place close to her that treated black patients at the time. Lacks described a “knot” in her stomach that ended up being cervical cancer. During her treatments two samples from her

Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed for cervical cancer in 1951 in the black wing of John Hopkins Hospital by Doctor George Gey. At the time, Gey was searching for cells that could survive on their own in a petrie dish. He took samples from many, if not most, of his patients in hopes of finding cells that would survive on their own. His attempts were unsuccessful until he took a sample of Henrietta Lack's tumor, which managed to not only stay viable but reproduced at a rapid pace. But, there was a catch. Henrietta Lacks and her family had no idea that Gey took her cells or that he and other doctors would make billions of dollars off of her cells long after she died and left her five kids and husband to live in poverty. Skloot tells the fascinating

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a very touching book; this book has really helped me take a new perspective on how patients were treated in hospitals in the 1950s. Also the book demonstrates how patients and research has changed drastically from how they are now compared to back when Henrietta’s cells were being used. Unfortunately Henrietta did not know that her cells were being used for research in the hospital labs, since she was unaware they were using her cells there was no way for her family to try to obtain money from the researchers to help them financially. Also, during this time period most people weren’t given the proper knowledge and consent rights to be used as research unlike today’s standards. Therefore, this leads me

If I could meet anyone and have a 30-minute conversation with them, it would be Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks is known in science because of her immortal cancer cells. Her cells, HeLa cells, were used by scientists to discover and research experiments that would be unethical on humans. Her cells played a big part in science because they helped scientists make breakthroughs in science including understanding AIDS. The important thing about Henrietta Lacks' story is the fact that her cells were taken without her permission. It was not until decades after her death in 1951 that her family became aware of HeLa cells. During the time of Henrietta's cancer treatments at Johns Hopkins Hospital, it was not seen as unethical to take DNA samples from

Principlism is a common practical approach to any bioethical dilemmas in medicine. According to Lewis Vaughn, there are five principles in Principlism that can provide a framework for reasoning through moral medical issues, which include autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, utility, and justice. Autonomy refers to the capacity of a person for making decisions for his/her own life. Nonmaleficence refers to doing absolutely no harm to others in any cases. Beneficence defines the right action to do is to bring good to others. Utility refers to always balancing out the harm by the good of an action. Justice refers to everyone should get an equal and fair treatment. The aforementioned five principles are supposed to provide some general guidelines for anyone who is