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Why Is Henrietta Lacks Unethical

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Hennie was what most of her friends knew her as, but to everyone else she was known as Henrietta Lacks. She was born in Virginia in August of 1920 to her mother who was a daughter of a plantation owner. Hernietta lived on the plantation which her grandfather owned until 1942, when she ended up moving to the city in Baltimore with her husband and family. Sadly, Henrietta died in October of 1951at the age of 31 due to cervical cancer; she was buried right next to the place where she grew up in Virginia in an unmarked grave. Her death would be the reason her name became so well known in the scientific community as well as the psychology one. Also why she was considered an scientific heroin due to the great things accomplished b her cells alone …show more content…
The Neuremberg Code of 1947 established informed consent which involved voluntary consent, freedom to discontinue participation and the discontinuation of the research study if it is determined harm may come to subjects. Dr. Guy broke all three of these points. Obviously, Henrietta Lacks was not afforded the opportunity to consent or discontinue participation nor were here relatives. Which doing so was not only morally wrong but against many codes and rules put into place because of incidents like that one. Dr. Guy injected the HeLa cells into prisoners which was a clear violation of discontinuation due to potential harm to subjects. Even if not held to this code, the Doctor knew it was ethically wrong as did everyone involved in keeping the cells secret for decades, while making money from the cell line and gaining fame from their discoveries. The overall ethical failure in regards to this case involves a massive breach of every individual’s right to privacy of personal information. There is also the issue of the fact that it was common knowledge that the family was not privy to knowledge about the cell line, and yet, even in modern day research studies involving the cells, no one attempted to rectify this violation. It was only when the children’s records were published that the family …show more content…
Given that Henrietta Lacks was African American; these cells could help discover differences in a rare type of cancer between African Americans and other racial groups. In addition, she was known to have one Caucasian grandparent. Her relatives have that ancestor in common though at different generations. Some may also have other Caucasian ancestors. It might be possible to compare her cells with her relatives’ cells to determine the differential influence of African American and Caucasian racial makeup on cell development and perhaps cancer cells in

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