Ethical Dilemmas The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

Ethical Dilemmas: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Justin Streeter â€Å"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. The Use of Lacks’ Cells Was Ethical The truth is the doctors that took Henrietta’s cells were doing it for a good cause. They didn’t do it to ruin her and her family’s life, they did it to help people and save lives. There were no laws prohibiting the taking of one’s cells, in fact in a later Supreme Court of California ruling, it was actually defended. When tissues are removed from your body, with or without consent, any claim to ownershipShow MoreRelatedThe Unethical Approach to Immortality: the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks768 Words   |  4 PagesImmortality Henrietta Lacks is, one of the greatest contributors medical science and research in the past century. Albeit, she never knew of her contribution. In fact, it took twenty years for her family to be informed about the extensive number of cells that had been produced, and that would continue to be produced, to further studies in the best medical interest of mankind. The ethics of this situation are hardly questionable and this is what â€Å"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks† by RebeccaRead MorePsy305 Ethical Principles1361 Words   |  6 PagesEthical Principles Paper PSY/305 Name Date 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. Read MoreEthics Is Defined As â€Å"The Branch Of Philosophy That Seeks1630 Words   |  7 Pageshelp â€Å"anticipate and recognize healthcare dilemmas while making good judgments and decisions based on universal values that also work simultaneously with laws and the constitution† (Pozgar, 2016, p. 3). When laws do not work how they should, that is when we rely on caregivers to make judgments, which are only guided by their personal ethics (Pozgar, 2016, p. 3). But where is the line drawn that separates personal and professional ethics? Henrietta Lacks In the late 1940’s, there was a woman justRead MoreThe Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks highlights how ethically flawed medicine once was and perhaps800 Words   |  4 PagesThe Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks highlights how ethically flawed medicine once was and perhaps still is. It tells the devastating story of a woman whose cells were collected and cultured without her consent and its wondrous effect within the medical community as well as the equally distressing effect on her family. Preceding the 50s, scientists, specifically Dr. George Otto Gey have been trying without success to cultivate human cells in laboratories for decades. Henrietta Lacks was an AfricanRead MoreReflective Paper On Henrietta Lacks3537 Words   |  15 PagesREFLECTIVE PAPER ON HENRIETTA LACKS 2 REFLECTIVE PAPER ON HENRIETTA LACKS 4 Reflective paper on Henrietta Lacks Ann Meril Dominican College Running head: REFLECTIVE PAPER ON HENRIETTA LACKS 1 Reflective paper on Henrietta Lacks The immortal life of Henrietta lack is a very inspiring and interesting book which tells the story behind the HeLa cells. This book was written by Rebecca Skloot who got interested in HeLa cells while sitting in her biology class. The book is not just aboutRead MoreAnalysis of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks2764 Words   |  12 PagesBackground of Story The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a true story of a poor, Southern African-American tobacco farmer who died in 1951 at the very young age of 31 years old from cervical cancer. Little did she know that cells harvested from her tumor, which were obtained without her consent have lived on and on and became one of the most important tools in medicine today. Despite Henrietta’s story being full of legal and ethical issues, the story was one filled with success and anguishRead MoreThe Controversy Over Bandaid30 For Ebola2955 Words   |  12 Pagessuffering and injury. 9. What sorts of ethical dilemmas arise when medical researchers carry out research with â€Å"vulnerable† populations? Give at least 2 examples. Some ethical dilemmas that may arise are whether or not the individuals have access to free health care. Individuals may not have access to free health care because they are not able to afford it may turn to medical experimentation as way to sought some form of free treatment. Ethical dilemma also arises in questioning whether or notRead MoreThe Dark Knight Essay2112 Words   |  9 Pagesincluding: Frankenstein, a fictional work by Mary Shell about a man who dared to play God; Galileo’s Daughter, an assemblage of letters that Dava Sobel uses to construct a memoir of Galileo’s life and the challenges he faced in his pursuit to educate the world; Rebecca Skloot’s, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, where she uncovers the origin of the famous HeLa cells and tackles the many controversies that medicine introduces to human rights. History also offers a great deal of thought on the matter