Hela Cells

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Recommended: What is the meaning of ethics

Ethics is most commonly thought of as rules for determining what is considered right and wrong. Most people are never formally taught the difference between the two, for it is something learned though experience, usually reinforced by parents and other adults throughout one’s childhood. It provides guidelines for responsible behavior, clearly identifying the acceptable from the unacceptable. However, how ethics is defined changes our values as a society evolve. Consequently, what is ethical is greatly determined by one’s perspective. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, an account of an African-American woman from Virginia, whose cancer cells were collected for research during her treatment for the cervical cancer that eventually took her …show more content…

Until Skloot took it upon herself to investigate the history behind the HeLa cells, there was not much information about who Henrietta’s life before her contribution to the scientific world. In a sense, HeLa cells dehumanized Henrietta, “everything was always just about the cells and [no one] even worried about her name and if HeLa was even a person” (Skloot, 122). Rather than being recognized as a mother, a daughter, a courageous woman who fought cancer, she was only known for the cells that were taken from her tumor. Henrietta did not live to see all of the people that her cells helped or the “multi-billion dollar industry” that became of HeLa cells (Skloot, 208). While her family struggled to make ends meet, never having enough money for health insurance, companies reaped the benefits of HeLa cells. Additionally, the family did not know about Henrietta’s cells until scientists began using her husband and children to further their research on HeLa cells (Skloot, 384). Continuously, the Lacks Family was being taken advantage of by the scientific world, never receiving compensation compensation for the profits HeLa cells generated. While the companies were conducting ground-breaking research to save millions of people’s lives, the Lacks family failed to receive proper medical care. It seems like there is not much harm done considering HeLa cells were saving millions of lives and the Lacks family were just a small group of people suffering. However, is it really ethical to save all of these lives knowing that the family responsible are not receiving proper medical

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  • Analysis Of Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

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    In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, multiple cell research studies involving Henrietta’s cells are described. Author Rebecca Skloot writes about Henrietta Lacks’ journey through her cervical cancer and how her cells changed the lives of millions long after her death. Skloot relates the history of cell research, including those studies which were successful and those that were not so successful. It is necessary for the author to include the achievements and disturbing practices of scientists throughout this history to inform readers and focus on the way Henrietta’s cells were used. Truth always matters to readers and Henrietta’s family deserves the truth.

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    Nowadays, when patients are given consent forms, every step is explicitly stated so that there is no confusion or harm. All in all, Henrietta Lacks has contributed and made significant changes to the scientific, ethical, and political aspects of society.

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    In 1951, the sickness of a poor African American woman named Henrietta Lacks -also know as HeLa- would go on to change the face of scientific research; without her consent. Henrietta Lacks went into John Hopkins Hospital in hopes of medical treatment, but instead her cells were unlawfully stolen from her and used for scientific advances in the world of medicine for the creations of the polio vaccine, cell cloning, vitro fertilization, and gene mapping. Long after Henrietta's death, Henrietta's family was forced to live a life of poverty without medical insurance simply because they could not afford it although their mothers cells had yielded billions of dollars due to its advances in the medical world. The scientific community and the media

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    Back in the day research was done on people without them knowing just like what was done to Henrietta, but not to the same extent. Although before Lacks, as stated in the book, cells were pulled from other people but did not survive and thrive like Lacks cells did. I knew before I read the book about research being done on African Americans for syphilis research with some of them knowing and some of them clueless as to what was going on (Skloot). They were all men who initially did not sign consent and this study ended up lasting 40 years (Centers for Disease and Control Prevention). I unfortunately had never heard of Henrietta Lack prior to reading this book and that worries me. I cant believe I had never heard about Henrietta Lacks or the HeLa cells, when she has such an important role in our modern medicine and vaccines. Henrietta is one of the main reasons we ha...

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    Rebecca Skloot’s novel, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, depicts the violation of medical ethics from the patient and researcher perspectives specifically when race, poverty, and lack of medical education are factors. The novel takes place in the southern United States in 1951. Henrietta Lacks is born in a poor rural town, Clover, but eventually moves to urban Turner Station. She was diagnosed and treated for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins hospital where cells was unknowingly taken from her and used for scientific research. Rebecca Skloot describes this when she writes, “But first—though no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting sample or asked she wanted to be a donor—Wharton picked up a sharp knife and shaved two dime-sized pieces of tissue from Henrietta's cervix: one from her tumor, and one from the healthy cervical tissue nearby. Then he placed the samples in a glass dish” (33). The simple act of taking cells, which the physicians did not even think twice about, caused decades

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    The story about Henrietta Lacks is the evidence that the ethics of medical processes need to be improved. For a long time, many patients have been victims of malpractice. Sometimes, the doctors still can do anything without the agreement from patients. Any medical institution needs to hold the integrity on any consent form that is signed by a patient. To summarize, the story of Henrietta Lacks could be the way to improve the standardization and equality of medical institutions in the future.

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