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Tess Bouton . 4:15 Class, Test 1. Part 1: The Medical Breakthroughs

Decent Essays
Tess Bouton
4:15 class, Test 1

Part 1: The medical breakthroughs and benefits of the HeLa cell line far outweigh the issue of the less than ethical way in which they were procured. We should not limit research using them as this cell line is extremely important to current/future medical research.

As research and technology progress forward in time, the ethical considerations that must be taken along with, not only method of study but social ramifications continues to grow exponentially. At the time when cells were taken unknowingly from Mrs. Lacks, there were not strict regulatory guidelines as to how consent should be required along with many other now ill-practice methods of medicine seen at the time. Despite agreeing that the
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Being that the family has come to terms, and the cost-benefit ratio is heavy towards the benefit, along with the fact that medical research was not scrutinized for ethical considerations as it is now, I would say that HeLa cells should continue to be used. It should also be used as an example of poor ethics that should not again occur in our history.

Part 2: Choose 1 of the following essay questions and respond. (2 pages)
Read the following passage from the text where a physician describes Mrs. Lacks and describe the social and cultural factors/narratives which likely underlay this description of Mrs. Lacks.

Mrs. Lacks was lucky to be benefitting from any sort of medical treatment during the time period she lived, since care facilities that treated people of color were difficult to come across. Being an African American woman who grew up farming tobacco fields, she was accustomed to an impoverished lifestyle. Her need to work the tobacco fields would have limited her education level. While her lack of education would be one of the many factors that would lead to the lack of questioning towards her doctors later in life, it may not have been that she did not have the desire to go to school. Not having the means to progress through her education, Mrs. Lacks would also not have had the time. Being that she had her
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