For the benefit of patient the medical profession has long subscribed to a body of ethical statements. It is used to safeguard the patient life and rights. But there have been times where these same rights are infringed upon and it is mostly due to lack of knowledge, social standing, or lack of monetary means all of which encompass a persons socio-economic status. Two different case studies will be evaluated to determine whether or not there truly is an effect on medical ethics. The first will be the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, and the case of Henrietta Lacks and the Hela cells. The Tuskegee Syphilis experiment was an experiment conducted on 399 black mean during the course of forty years. The subjects for this experiment were illiterate …show more content…
They were told that they were being treated of ‘bad blood” and the doctors who conducted this study had no intention of curing the patients of syphilis at all; their focus of the experiment was to see the symptoms from beginning to end. The doctors of the experiment persuaded people to join the trial by offering to pay for burial services and by providing care for their illness which they thought was something else. This experiment targeted African Americans that had no education level to know that they were being manipulated. They were taught to believe that doctors were there to help and nothing they would do would harm them. Like when the only real cure for syphilis was discovered the patients were denied of treatment. The first major ethical issue that should be considers is informed consent, which is informing the research participants what they are participating and all aspects of the project/ experiment that might cause the patient to not participate. The second issue is withholding treatment for the purpose of research. As doctors and caretakers it is the job to take care and cure rather than …show more content…
Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951 at John Hopkins. The doctors at the institution took samples from her cervix without her permission and attempted to keep them alive. After her death her cells later known as Hela cells, became a vital part to scientific research. This because her cells were considered immortal, and they multiplied at substantial rate and this is the first time that scientist had seen anything like this. Hela cells were used to cure many diseases and illness but Henrietta’s family had no idea what was happening to her cells. The doctors at Johns Hopkins created a billion dollar industry on her cells and there was no compensation for the family. In Rebecca Skloots book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” she talks about how Henrietta signed a consent form allowing her doctors to perform whatever procedure for the care and treatment of her cancer but there is no indication that of permission from Henrietta that allowed the doctors to take samples of her for medical research. Because of Henrietta’s socio-economic status, she might of felt as if she had no choice and she wasn’t educated enough to ask questions about what was being done to her. The same goes for her family they had no idea what procedure were being done on her and it was this vulnerability that the family faced exploitation. The ethical and moral obligation of
Henrietta Lacks was a thirty-one year old African American who had five kids and married her cousin David Lacks. Henrietta was diagnosed with cervical cancer, the doctors never informed Mrs. Lacks that her cells were to be tested on. The Lacks family was certainly not advised that Henrietta 's cells were growing at an incredible rate. Because of this, the cancer cells were shipped and bought across the world. The last 8 months of Henrietta’s death became a piece of history nobody would ever want to forget.
3-5). Henrietta Lacks is a perfect example of why this nation needs ethics. Her story not only tells us of her hardship, but of her family’s hardship too. The family has had to deal with a multitude of hardships not only by money being generated because of her mother that doesn’t go to them, but by the constant barrage of reporters other scientists. Can you imagine
Lacks’ Cells Alive for Medical Industry Benefits The story of Henrietta Lacks in this reading is fascinating. By using Ms. Lacks’ cells, medical science has developed many cures. By one woman contributing her cells decades ago without her knowledge, on an involuntary basis, the impact has become mind-boggling. At the same time, it is disheartening and shaming to know that Henrietta’s family was unable to pay for medical attention for her.
“The historic dream of public health…is a dream of social justice” (Health Affairs, Vol. 25, Number 4). In the story of Henrietta Lacks, it is hard to say that the use of her cervical tissue is ethical, because it is not. Henrietta was diagnosed with cervical cancer and Dr. Gey decided to isolate those cells. When he found that these cells could grow in a culture medium and last, he shared them with the world of science.
In January 1951, she was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer; she died in October of the same year (Skloot, 2010). Before she died, one of her doctors took a sample of cells from her tumor without either informing Henrietta nor asking her consent. The cells were allowed to reproduce in a petri dish; unlike ordinary human cells that die after so many reproductions, Henrietta’s cell continued to reproduce. They are commonly known as immortal HeLa cells, and they are still reproducing and being used in labs all over the world (Longwill, 2016). It wasn’t until more than 20 years after Henrietta’s death that her family was even aware that the HeLa cells existed.
Upon reading further on the development of the HeLa cells, it is thus possible that Henrietta 's cell couldn 't just grow at rates that were ordinary between the second and third visiting. However, readers can conclusively assert that Henrietta Lacks had not thoroughly treated and this can be attributed to the color of her skin. Even before people learn of HeLa Cells as well as the use of Henrietta’s tissue without their consent, they were shocked learning what they thought was true that African Americans were being
This part of the novel begin with the family discovering that their mother’s cells were being used in laboratories everywhere in the world. Her cells were used to help develop drugs for treating, herpes, polio, leukemia, influenza, hemophilia and Parkinson’s disease. Also, they were used to study lactose digestion, sexually transmitted diseases, appendicitis, human longevity, and mosquito mating (Skloot, 4). Part three also covers the amount of profits that were made from HeLa and how much the Lacks family struggled with numerous amounts of medical conditions and other adversities that could have all been alleviated with their share of the HeLa cell line profit. The chapters also cover a few legal cases and once important case (Moore vs. Regents of the University of California) that cause the Supreme Court to conclude that human tissues after being left in the doctor's office, no longer belonged to the patients, rather is in the ownership of doctor or the hospital.
Being a victim of racism in the early 1950s, she didn 't get the necessary medical attention needed to treat her. Jones cut a small sample of her lump for a biopsy that showed results of her being diagnosed of cervical cancer or adenocarcinoma, a malignant tumor of the epithelial tissue in her cervix. During her first cancer treatment, Dr. Lawrence Wharton Jr. without Henrietta 's consent took two pieces of live tissue from which her cells: one piece of tissue from her tumor and one from healthy cervical tissue near the tumor. Even after her death, those cells continue to live today. These immortal cells were
Henrietta Lacks was a black tobacco farmer from the south who, in 1950, at the age of 30, she was diagnosed with aggressive cervical cancer. Lacks went to John’s Hopkins medical center for treatment for her cancer. In April of 1951, she underwent surgery to remove the larger tumor on her cervix. Henrietta Lacks, died three days following the surgery. Even though Henrietta Lacks died, her cells from the tumor have lived on and have made a major impact on the biomedical community.
In 1951, at the age of 31 Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Henrietta was under treatment at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where cells from her malignant tumor were removed. Neither Henrietta nor any of her family members knew about the tissue sample and nor did the Hopkins ever informed them of the situation. Unfortunately after Henrietta’s radiation treatment, her condition continued to worsen and soon she lost her battle to cancer on octomber 4th 1951. Henriettas cells left the Hopkins what they discovered to be known to be the first immortal human cell line.
However, a few days after doctors removed the tubes and performed an X-Ray exam. The doctors, took two samples, a noncancerous and a cancerous part of her cervix without her permission. These cells would ultimately develop into the HeLa immortal cell line, a universally used cell line in biomedical research. My immediate reaction to the ethical issue with Henrietta Lacks cell taken without her permission disturbed me because I felt if she was a White woman doctors would have asked for permission and would have given credit
30year old Henrietta Lacks underwent radiation treatment for cervical cancer at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore In 1951. During her treatment, George Gey the surgeon who performed the procedure removed pieces of her cervix without her knowledge and sent them to a lab. Her cells were used to develop the polio vaccine, used in the first space missions to see what would happen to human cells in zero gravity. Henrietta’s cells were the first human cells ever cloned, some of the first genes ever mapped. They have been used to create some of our most important cancer
Despite the wrongdoings Henrietta Lacks was put through her cells did a lot to help advance science. Her cells helped develop different types of vaccines, which such as her daughter faced. A lot of good and bad came out of Henrietta’s
The origination of HeLa cells, used in biomedical research for a potential cure for cancer, had made many ground breaking discoveries in science; all thanks to one woman, Mrs. Henrietta Lacks. The history of Mrs. Lacks’s contribution to these studies raised many ethical issues concerning healthcare practice. In the short film, The Way of All Flesh, we learn how these cells were revealed by direct violation of ethical principles. During the 1950s, matters regarding informed consent practices were in their beginning stages of implementation.
Scientists and doctors made great discoveries with the HeLa cells of Henrietta Lacks. The family of Henrietta Lacks had to live with the aftermath of decisions made by doctors and