This article is about a family whose their daughter was struck with leukemia and the only treatment option remained was a bone marrow transplant. Anissa was terrified to discover lumps around her ankles and experienced cramp-like stomach discomforts. The diagnosis came out mysteriously that Anissa developed chronic myelogenous leukemia, which was approximated to take her life within five years or less without bone marrow transplant. Healthy stem cells from the marrow transplanted can produce healthy blood cells in the recipient’s body transplant. Both older brother and parents did not match to safe Anissa’s life. She tried to keep it secret from her parents due to fear of having to get a blood test done. The parents, Mary and Abe, were thoroughly …show more content…
However, the parents made the decision process for the procedure despite the risks and the likelihood of success. Justice: This equal right distribution might have ignited conflicts with the medical legislation in regard to this case. However, the parents of the patient’s rights were fairly delivered. Bone marrow transplant was the right treatment for the patient, but risky for the donor as young as she was. Beneficence: The procedure was intended on doing good for the patient to cure the cancer. Nevertheless, the circumstance that the donor was placed in was less likely of doing good to her, but time was running out to save her sister’s life. The parents of the patient took positive step to save their daughter’s life. Non-maleficence: The procedure didn’t harm the patient, rather freed her from cancer. On the other hand, the procedure done on the donor could have caused harm but greater good was pursued. Role fidelity: Although this could cause ethical conflict in the medical practice world, the doctors were loyal and competent in performing the procedure to honor the agreement established with the patient. Veracity: The health care workers delivered the truth to the patient and her family about the treatment options. This led the family to give conception one more try in their advanced ages to fulfill the family desire to save their child although the probability of the sibling match was low. Confidentiality: Patient and family medical information were kept from spilling out into the public until after a successful procedure was done. The uncovering of the information after this huge treatment turnout was an eye opener to many and motivated others to do the same. Non-medical factors: The only non-medical factor was parents’ advanced age, Mary at 42 years old and Abe in his 40s, when they decided to try having another miraculous child to save
Throughout the duration of their lives, the Lacks family never received any monetary compensation for the use of their family member’s cells and were unable to even afford health insurance (p. 168). The ethical standards that apply to this dilemma are: Integrity (1.04), Exploitative Relationships (1.07, a), Contracts, Fees, and Financial Arrangements (2.12), Accuracy in Billing Reports (2.13), Acknowledging
...ave. They have been through a lot by people asking over and over about the HeLa cells. I think the least the doctors could do is tell them the actual truth about how they used those cells and stop making them guess or always wonder. I think they should have told them when they come to get the blood what they were actually using it for. They may not have understood, but the least they could do is tell them. They could have told them they wasn’t taking their blood to see if they had cancer they should have told them they were taking it for the HeLa cells. I think it was a good thing when I found out that Gey was actually doing research on the cells and not actually trying to get money. I thought this whole time he was probably getting money from it. I think when he was doing his research he was actually trying to help people, not put the Lack’s family through so much.
Recent high profile cases, films and books all around the world including the UK, Australia and the United States have brought to the public’s attention a new type of IVF. ‘Embryo Selection’ meaning ‘Embryos are fertilised outside the body and only those with certain genes are selected and implanted in the womb.’ Henceforth meaning that doctors are now able to select specific embryo’s and implant them into the mother of who may have another sick child in order to gain genetic material such as bone marrow which will match the ill-fated child and therefore hopefully be able to save their life. Creating a ‘saviour sibling’. ‘A child conceived through selective in vitro fertilization as a potential source of donor organs or cells for an existing brother or sister with a life-threatening medical condition’ a definition given by Oxford Dictionaries (1.0). Cases of this are happening all around the globe and many are highly documented about. The most famous case could be noted as in the fictional book of ‘My Sisters Keeper’ By Jodi Picoult. I will further discuss this throughout my dissertation and how books and films can affect the view on certain ethical subjects. Furthermore, I am also going to discuss a range of factors such as certain religious beliefs and the physical creation of saviour siblings compared to the creation of designer babies. Strong views are held by many both for and against the creation of saviour siblings.
Skloot describes how, “When Southam began injecting people with HeLa cells in 1954, there was no formal research oversight in the United States.” (98) Southam’s use of HeLa cells sparked major outrage after headlines reading “PATIENTS INJECTED WITH CELLS NOT TOLD THEY WERE CANCER … SCIENTIFIC EXPERTS CONDEMN ETHICS OF CANCER INJECTION” surfaced. (99) In the end, the Medical Grievance Committee of the Board of Regents found Southam and his fellow researcher, Mandel, guilty of “fraud or deceit and unprofessional conduct in the practice of medicine.” (100) This trial lead to a major change in the policy of the NIH, making it so that proposals for research on human subjects had to be reviewed by independent review boards, ensuring that research done would meet ethical requirements. Henrietta’s cells still inspires important discussion on medical ethics -- as Debra DeBruin, director of the University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics states, “Researchers can take away an awareness of the impact that research can have on people. Rebecca Skloot does a great job of capturing different perspectives on the issues. Hearing a story like Henrietta Lacks’ takes us out of a purely scientific research perspective and
The fight against diseases, especially these serious diseases causing untold suffering for many people, must be continuous and heroic. Fetal tissue use has a promising hope for people in their old age to be and live more sustainable. Even though fetal research does not hold the certainty but only a possibility of cures for such diseases, such possibilities should be realized if one has the resources and there is no moral impediment to doing so. But that remains the question. Is there a moral impediment to such research? ...
Often in the darkest time it is good to seek relief in the good of every situation. With the death of a Mother, Daughter, and contributing member in society, it may be hard to try and find any positivity to draw from. With the unfortunate and untimely death of Henrietta, came the opportunity of life to millions of others in society then, now, and for many years to come. The goal of medical research is to put society as a whole in a better place than it was at the day before. The use of HeLa cells in every developed country on the globe has made this objective much more achievable. The Lacks family led the way for the consent form being required for patients undergoing a medical procedure Although, there was no direct benefit to the family, raising many ethical considerations that must be
Firstly, by looking at the first patient, whether she gets a kidney from her father or a “cadaver kidney” , there will be no difference because she needs a kidney nonetheless. The second patient however, cannot agree to give his kidney away because one of the main reasons is that he’s scared and lacks “the courage to make this donation”9. So right at this point, it can be seen that it would be better if the father didn’t give his kidney away because it wouldn’t cause him any happiness, whereas the daughter has two options to gIn everyday life, whether on a personal base or on a professional base, difficult scenarios, or also known as moral dilemmas, are present. Depending on whom the person is or what their belief and value systems are, the issue can be ‘resolved’. In this particular case, questions arise about whether it is morally right to lie to family members when something can be done, ignoring the fact of its after effects. The case will be explained in details later on including the patient’s state, but to answer this ethical question, two theorists will be presented for the con and pro side. For the con side, the deontologist Immanuel Kant will be presented with his theory that lying is prohibited under all circumstances, as for the pro side, John Stuart Mill will be presented for the utilitarian theory stating that whichever decision brings out the most happiness is the right decision. After discussing the case, my personal view of what is right will be stated with my own reasons, which is that lying is the right decision to be taken.
A few weeks ago The New York Times published the article Hopeful Start for First Uterus Transplant in the U.S. The article talks about the candidate who will be receiving the first uterus transplant and the expected outcome (Grady). This is exciting news for many women in the United States, but there are a few people that don’t share the excitement. Although there have been uterus transplants performed in other countries before, bioethical issues still arise. There have been some heated debates on this issue in the past, and both the supporting and opposing sides make good points. The truth of the matter is that even though there is risks uterus transplants can benefit women and medicine a great deal.
Parker, Michael. "The Best Possible Child." Journal of Medical Ethics 33.5 (2007): 279-283. Web. 1 Apr 2011. .
I am very interested in the topic of Organ transplantation. I am interested in biology and the process of surgeries. What intrigues me is the process of saving someone’s life in such a dramatic and complicated process. My dad happens to be a doctor and in his training he cut open a human body to see for himself the autonomy of the body. So being interested in the field of medicine is in my blood. Modern technology helps many people and saves people around the globe. However even with modern technologies that progress mankind, bio medical and ethical dilemmas emerge. And ultimately life falls into the hands of the rabbis, lawmakers and philosophical thinkers.
The purpose of this case study is to investigate and bring new insight to situations and behaviors within an organization. Case studies are learning tools which utilize social science research to identify and resolve individual and organizational challenges (K. Mariama-Arthur Esq., 2015).
I believe that parents are not morally justified in having a child merely to provide life saving medical treatment to another child or family member, but that this does not mean that the creation of savior siblings is morally impermissible. By having a child solely to provide life saving medical treatment, you are treating this child merely as a means rather than an end to the individual child. By having the child solely as a means to save another, you are violating this savior sibling in that you are treating them as a source of spare parts that can be used by the sickly child in order to solely promote the prolonged life of the currently sick child. This view that having a child merely as a way to provide medical treatment does not consider the multitude of other avenues that this newborn child can take, and presupposes that the child will only be used for the single purpose of providing life saving medical treatment through use of stems cells or organ donation. What this view fails to consider is that these savior siblings are valued by families for so much more than just as a human bag of good cells and organs that can be used to save the life of the original child. Instead, these savior siblings can be valued as normal children themselves, in that they can be valued in the same way that any other child who is born is valued, yet at the same time they will also be able to provide life-saving treatment to their sibling. My view runs parallel to the view held by Claudia Mills who argues that it is acceptable to have a savior sibling, yet at the same time we can not have a child for purely instrumental motives, and instead should more so value the child for the intrinsic worth that they have. Mills presents her argument by puttin...
In this medical ethical case study, there are two high-class parents with two normal children. Let’s call the family the Noble family. Mrs. Noble gave birth to a premature boy in the late fall of 1963. After the child was born, Mrs. Noble immediately and independently made a decision to not keep the child as soon as the diagnosed her newborn’s monogoloid (Down syndrome). Once the decision was final, the hospital did not attempt to override the decision or seek court order. Soon after, the child was separated into another room and was left for 11 days with no food. My purpose for gathering the information about Mr. and Mrs. Noble is to analyze her critical dilemma between keeping her child and having an abortion. Through the process of analyzing
Background Info? Bone marrow transplantation restores stem cells that were destroyed by high doses of chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy.
The first successful case of stem cell therapy in human was reported in 1959. Bone marrow restorations were observed in leukemia patients who received total body irradiation subsequent by intravenous injection of their twins’ bone marrow (Thomas et al, 1957). Nevertheless, that effect was transient and the following bone marrow transplantation attempts in non-twin patients and donors can eventually lead to patient’s death from graft-versus-host disease (Mathé et al, 1965). During that time, the safety of hematopoietic cells transplantation was not guaranteed because of the limited knowledge in human histocompatibility and immunosuppression. However, the turning point came after the discovery of human leucocyte antigen (HLA) groups (Dausset, 1958; van Rood et al, 1958), HLA typing and compatibility testing were performed prior to the transplantation. In addition, the improvement of immunosuppressive protocol also helps bringing the bone marrow transplantation to become more and more successful (Donnall and Hutchinson, 1999).