...The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks raises many ethical issues with one in particular surrounded around informed consent. Moore v. Regents of the University of California (1990) was very similar to Henrietta’s circumstance in that Moore’s removed blood and bodily fluids became a cell line patented for commercial use (Menikoff, 2011). The HeLa cells from Henrietta have become the “mother” of many inventions and served as a foundation of a number of medical advances, including the well-known polio vaccine, among others. Despite her contribution towards great inventions in the medical field, Henrietta’s family, like Mr. Moore, were not aware of such contribution leaving them to believe they were owed compensation. The same demand for compensation could also be seen by the Havasupai Indian tribe against Arizona State University who agreed to pay $700,000 to its members due to improperly using blood samples for genetic research (2010)....
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...Ethical issues: 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. These are issues because the cells of Henrietta lack were used to create “immortal” cells that provided a steady supply of cells for medical research and allowed to find cure for multiple diseases, and guaranteed the medical industry millions of dollar when her family his struggling to pay for healthcare. Moreover, researchers at Johns Hopkins asked the Lack’s family to give blood sample to test for cancer when in fact, the sample were used solely to identify their mother’s cell. The researchers never contacted back the Lack’s family, and some of them still wonder if they have the same cancer that killed their mother. These issues in this case concern the broad category of consumer confidence issues where employers and employees have responsibilities to their customers or clients. Johns Hopkins, a healthcare provider institution, and its doctors and researchers who are the care giver had responsibilities to their patient Henrietta and her family. In addition, the case is concerned with the specific are of fiduciary responsibilities, and client confidentiality and privacy...
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...The solution to Henrietta Lacks The Ethics and Legal Solution Natalie Smith May 26, 2018 Medical Terminology, Law and Ethics 2 After reading the book of “The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks” a few years ago I was very amazed on how doctors back in those days just took bodily fluids and did experiments on patients without their permission. Since Henrietta was poor and doctors didn’t think it mattered if they took her cells it wouldn’t be any issues. Once they found out that her cells were able to be replicated infinitely in a lab they hit the gold mine of medical discoveries because they were able to find a vaccine for polio and breakthroughs in herpes, leukemia and even hemophilia and also were able to better understand numerous diseases that will help...
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...The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, involves a great amount of various topics, from race, to gender, to cancer. A woman named Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman battling cervical cancer in the 1940’s until her death in 1951. As doctors tried to help her and find a cure for her, they had to study her cells and the cancerous cells. It was during the study of her cells that they realized her cells never died; in fact, her cells reproduced indefinitely. There are many ways to support the thesis of the book, exploring the ethics in medical research, and this book is relatable and significant to U.S. history involving medicine, race, gender, etc. The book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, was written because the...
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...Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This is due to the fact that when Henrietta died in 1951, the United States was still racially segregated. The African-American Civil Rights Movement would not begin until four years later, but would end somewhere in the neighborhood of eight years prior to Henrietta’s story making its debut in the mainstream media. Light had been shed on the issue of racism by 1976, making it a known issue to a vast majority of people. There really is no way of knowing how Henrietta’s story would have been interpreted had it been published at the time of her death in 1951. All one can do is speculate. For example, one speculation could be, if Henrietta’s story had been published at the time of her death, it most likely would not have been interpreted as racist. This is because of the fact that the people living in the United States at that...
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...particular, and medical advances in general? Does the Lacks family have any claim to the money that has been made from HeLa? Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one. ~Chinese Proverb I find the question of who should reek the benefits of the HeLa cells in the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks to be not just be a simple he or she answer (if that makes any sense), but I find this question really asks something deeper. The questions I believe this is asking us is if it was legal for dr. George Otto Gey to do what he did and if so was it morally and ethically correct to for him to do so. As for the claim question, two questions really have to be answered, and they are: I.) Do the Lacks legally have any claim to the money that was profited from the HeLa cells? II.) Do the Lacks morally (without legal matters being taken into consideration) have a claim to the money that was profited from the HeLa cells? Legally Right or Wrong Now to elaborate on the legal aspects of this question; was it legally acceptable for the HeLa cells to be taken without Henrietta’s permission/knowledge and used for research and profit? From an excerpt from the Columbia Science and Law Technology Review it gives a similar case that was argued in the Supreme Court (circa 1980’s). In the following excerpt it will show the more than likely ruling to a HeLa case (had one taken place). Given the current state of the law, the Henrietta Lackses of the world have a hard argument to make...
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...Instructor: Henrietta (Loretta) Pleasant, born in August of 1920 in Roanoke, VA, was an African American woman who was raised by her grandfather in a small cabin on a plantation. At the age of 14, she gave birth to her first child, a son, followed by a daughter four years later. She married the father of her children, her first cousin David Lacks, shortly thereafter. After having moved to Maryland for work, the couple had three other children. The last, Joseph, was born in November of 1950, and two months later, in January of 1951, Henrietta went to the hospital with abnormal bleeding. A malignant tumor of her cervix was discovered, and was treated with radiation therapy, which was ultimately unsuccessful. Mrs. Lacks died on October 4, 1951, at the age of 31. During the course of her treatment for cervical cancer, a section of the tumor was removed and sent to the pathology lab. While being treated with radiation, two more samples (one of healthy tissue, and one of cancerous tissue) were also removed without Henrietta’s consent or knowledge. These cell samples were given to Dr. George Otto Gey, a scientific researcher who had spent years trying to figure out how to keep cells alive outside the human body. In Henrietta’s cells, he found his answer. The cell line grown from Henrietta Lack’s sample, now known simply as HeLa, has been utilized in research and medical labs throughout the world since the 1950s. The controversy The case of Henrietta Lacks is unique, in that...
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...The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of Henrietta, an African-American woman whose cells were used to create the first immortal human cell line. Told through the eyes of her daughter, Deborah Lacks, aided by journalist Rebecca Skloot. Deborah wanted to learn about her mother, and to understand how the unauthorized harvesting of Lacks cancerous cells in 1951 led to unprecedented medical breakthroughs, changing countless lives and the face of medicine forever. It is a story of medical arrogance and triumph, race, poverty and deep friendship between the unlikeliest people. There had been many books published about Henrietta’s cells, but nothing about Henrietta’s personality, experiences, feeling, life style etc. This caught Rebecca’s...
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...assey Barbeau 11/10/16 Mr. Mooney The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Essay Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Broadway Books, 2010 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is Rebecca Skloot’s debut monograph, and she has only written one other monograph since. Skloot attended Colorado State University, and received her MFA from University of Pittsburgh. Though she has only written two monographs, Skloot is the author of hundreds of essays and stories published in various magazines. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot, tells the story of a young African American woman named Henrietta Lacks, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Though she was put through many painful medical treatments, Henrietta Lacks succumbed to her illness at the young age of 31. Unbeknown to Henrietta and her family, surgeons at John Hopkins Hospital had taken tissue from Lacks’ tumor, and sent the cells to be investigated by Dr. Gey, a researcher at John Hopkins Hospital. Despite the fact that many would consider this morally corrupt, informed consent had not yet materialized at this time, so there was no legal wrongdoing on the part of John Hopkins. Much to Dr. Gey’s surprise, Henrietta Lacks’ cells were growing astonishingly...
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...Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, Skloot reveals to readers the intimate details of the life, and lives of those related to, Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta was a poor black woman who had an extremely aggressive case of cervical cancer and the cells taken from her tumor were found to be able to grow on long after her death, providing an amazing test subject for scientists and researchers everywhere. These cells, called HeLa, helped develop a polio vaccine and have helped scientists to learn about and treat vast amounts of other illnesses. But despite this triumph for the medical field, throughout the book, Henrietta’s descendants continue to be cloaked in poverty. Henrietta’s body made these researchers millions and her family continued to live in poverty despite their mother’s amazing contribution to science. Skloot creates this theme of poverty throughout the book by really immersing herself into the lives of Henrietta’s children and telling their stories throughout the book as well. She emphasizes the contrast between the success and wealth of the developers of HeLa with the poverty of the family of the...
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...Lloyd L. Cannedy, Ph.D. Book Review of “The Immortal Life of Henriettta Lack” Student: Abraham S Lincoln “Henrietta Lacks, a young black mother of five children, entered the colored ward of The Johns Hopkins Hospital to begin treatment for an extremely aggressive strain of cervical cancer. As she lay on the operating table, a sample of her cancerous cervical tissue was taken without her knowledge or consent and given to Dr. George Gey, the head of tissue research. Gey was conducting experiments in an attempt to create an immortal line of human cells that could be used in medical research. Those cells, he hoped, would allow scientists to unlock the mysteries of cancer, and eventually lead to a cure for the disease. Until this point, all of Gey’s attempts to grow a human cell line had ended in failure, but Henrietta’s cells were different; they never died.” (USF 2013-14 Common Reader, The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Pg1) The cells, called HeLa, became one of the most important tools in medical research, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and more. Less than a year after her initial diagnosis, Henrietta’s cancer was too much for her to bare, and the cancer took over her body. Because of her poverty she was buried in an unmarked grave on her family’s land. She was only thirty-one years old. Her family never knew, at that time that a portion small piece of Henrietta was still living, and that small piece would change the course of healthcare...
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...The Immortal Life of Henriettta Lacks Option A: Focus on Pathos Pathos Paper In the book Rebecca Skloot entitled, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” the reader is able to identify pathos in parts of chapter eight and eleven entitled, “The Miserable Specimen and The Devil of Pain Itself.” In chapter 8 Skloot uses pathos to describe how Henrietta dealt with racism during her treatment, her miserable state of being during her radiation therapy treatments, and how her treatment impacted her own interactions with her own kids. In chapter eight, the author puts the reader in a mixture of emotions such as; anger, sympathy, sadness, misery and many more. The author tells the reader how her color impacted the way doctors treated her when she became extremely ill. The early 1990’s best describes the “Jim Crowe Era,” how the “colored” people were segregated from the white folks from hospitals, bathrooms, restaurants, and many more. Skloot illustrates how Henrietta had to deal with improper treatment because of her color, when she was literally dying. The quote from page 64 says; “But several studies have shown that black patients were treated and hospitalized in later stages of their illness than white patients. And once hospitalized, they got fewer pain medications and had higher mortality rates,” best illustrates that with all the unfair treatment “colored” patients receive, the reader realizes that there is a very slight chance Henrietta will survive and fight off her...
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...sweeping characterization of the HeLa story is both poetic and right on the money. It tells us exactly why Henrietta's story captured her attention in the first place. The story of Henrietta Lacks and HeLa addresses not only the issue of racial exploitation and demonization, but also that of a patient's humanity and his or her right to compassionate care and privacy. It is clever how she links the "contamination" of the cells to the "one drop" policy of racial identification. In addition, Skloot added one more story about “They didn't know that on the other side of the country, a white man named John Moore was about to begin fighting the same battle. Unlike the Lacks family, he knew who'd done what with his cells, and how much money they'd made”(198) Skloot includes the story of Moore to show how differently things could go for a patient if he or she has the privilege of knowledge and money. And in this case, race. Would John Moore's case have garnered so much attention and effort if he were poor and black? In the end it didn't matter; he lost his case. Debora told Rebecca Skloot when she knew...
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...Phoenix Ethical Principles Paper Henrietta Lacks was born on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia and she died due to complications of cervical cancer on October 4, 1951.She had been receiving treatment at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. At the hospital she was treated with radium tube inserts, which is said to be the standard treatment for cervical cancer in 1951. As a matter of routine, samples of her cervix were removed without permission. Henrietta was 31 years old when she died. In this time it was customary for doctors and researchers to remove cells from a person for testing. Likewise cells were taken from Henrietta. The problem was that the cells were taken from her body without her knowledge or consent. These cells were later used to form the HeLa cell. The HeLa cell has been used many times over in medical research since they were removed from the body of Henrietta Lacks. The lack of consent in this case shined a light on the legal and ethical issues involved in medical research. On October 4, 1951 Henrietta Lacks died, but unlike others her cells did not die. Samples of her cells were removed from her body without her permission. During this time doctors frequently removed cells from patients without their permission or consent. Informed consent did not come into practice until the late 1970s due to another controversial case, the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment of 1932-1972. The cells taken from Henrietta are known as the He-La cell line...
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...involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct. More simply put, it is the standards that members of a profession must follow. In psychology, ethics plays a big role in psychology because it protects the client and the counselor as well. However, in the case on Henrietta Lacks, it seems that there was no room for ethics during these scientists studies. Henrietta Lacks was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951. She was considered one of the most important tools in medicine and vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning gene mapping, and more (Skloot, 2010). Summary In an Internet video, Film Media Group (2012) states that in 1860, Benjamin Lacks had two children by a black mistress and they all worked in the tobacco field for three generations. Then, in 1942, Benjamin Lack's great granddaughter Henrietta Lacks (her friends called her “Hennie”) moved to Baltimore and died there in 1951. Right before she died, her cancer cells were taken from her body to help research and “conquer death.” Since then, her cells have been growing and multiplying since. There was a laboratory close to where Henrietta lived. In that laboratory was Dr. George Gey who wanted to rid the world of cancer. After a gynecologist appointment, abnormal, purple and cancerous tissue was given to Dr. Gey to study and from there, the study began. Afraid of a potential lawsuit from Henrietta's family, Dr. Gey kept the secret...
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