Informative Essay On Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks Essay

The topic of “informed consent” and the story about Henrietta Lacks is still talked about today in society. Because of Henrietta's lacks issues with John Hopkins Hospital, it has since brought questions to tissue and cell rights. Henrietta Lacks had cervical cancer and doctors at John Hopkins took her cells without her knowledge and discovered that her cells were immortal. A million dollar industry was produced around her cells and she was left struggling to pay bills, penniless from the doctor’s exploitation and scientific discovery. The NIH soon made agreements with the Lacks family, which they agreed to, but many argue against for numerous reasons. Some believe that agreements can never nearly fix the damage that has

been done to Henrietta and her family. “Informed consent” is also subject that can get tricky but I believe that a person’s body is their own no matter if the sample has been extracted or

The specific agreements of the NIH and the lacks family is that NIH would respect the lacks family wishes to enable scientific progress while ensuring public acknowledgement of the enormous contribution made by the late Henrietta Lacks.

In addition to the agreement, the understanding gives two members of Lacks family a seat on the NIH group responsible for reviewing biomedical researchers’ applications for controlled access to HeLa cells.In the Nature Comment, Dr. Collins and NIH Deputy Director for Science, Outreach, and Policy Kathy L. Hudson, Ph.D., describe their collaboration with the family to develop the new policies and also examine some of the larger questions about protection of research participants in the expanding field of genomics research. “Besides their priceless contributions to biomedical research over the past 60 years, Mrs. Lacks and her family are now serving as a catalyst for policies that advance science, build trust, and protect research participants,” said Dr. Hudson. The National Institute of Health announced that they would make good with the Lacks family under a new agreement, which allows the Lacks genome data that will be accessible only to those who apply for and are granted permission. Some of the issues that remain unresolved from this agreement include how tissue research does not legally require informed consent. Storing blood and tissues also is a routine procedure with no legal requirement for consent. The unanswered question is determining the “ownership” of these biological products and cells. The new agreement does not include any financial compensation for the

family.

I feel that the NIH agreement with the Lacks family is unfair because of how the Lacks family still was deceived by John Hopkins hospital and scientists as well. No amount of regulations in the present can fix the wrong doings in the past. The family also doesn’t get any source of compensations for the hurdles they had to go through resolve the mystery of Henrietta. Henrietta Lacks was deceived, misinformed, and lived an unfortunate life. She was poor, and was buried in an unmarked grave for the longest time, until one was donated in her honor. Her significance to science and importance to the world was not cherished as greatly as it should have. I believe that after all that Henrietta and her family has gone through, they should be financially supported. I think it is unfair that Science has unrightfully invaded Henrietta’s body, and decades later her family still cannot afford healthcare. Sonny Lacks is a hundred thousand dollars in debt after bypass surgery. Sonny Lacks says that, “ it leaves me feeling kind of not angry a little bit than I don’t have the medical coverage and then that my mother’s cells being used all over the world for science purpose. And then the medical coverege that we have is zero, me and my brother.”

I believe that “informed consent” should be applied in a manner where, once cells/tissue are out of a person’s body, they should still be considered as part of that person. It’s like having one’s foot accidentally cut off, that limb once detached from the body would not be considered someone elses foot or unders someone else's possession. The same goes with a person’s tissue and cells. Once it leaves the body, the person’s DNA is still infused with their sample and was produced by that person. No company can take away a piece of you without any type of informed consent. Unless an individual gives consent for physicians to use their tissue, they cannot use someone else's body for scientific experiment or publishment. If taking someone cells without their permission, was legal or moral, we would not still be talking about Henrietta Lacks in the present. Rebecca Skloot explains a time in Moines University where a class of Medical students were instructed to take their phones out, unlock them and pass them to the person behinds them. The students looked at the instructor in a bemused and untrusting way because they didn’t know what the other person was going to see in addition to what they would do with the information they discovered about that person. “In other words, they wanted to be informed, and they wanted to give consent,” Dr. Gray, the professor of the class, said later. In an article Skloot wrote in the New York Times, she continues this story by telling the readers to imagine if those phones were your cells, containing genetic information that makes you, the person you are. Dr. Gray asked his student if they wanted scientists to pass the phones around and use them in research without your consent Because right then, they would be able to. Also, before someone can give their phone to another person, they need to be informed about what the other person will do with it. The owner of the phone cannot be forced into giving that information. It is immoral and those in the field of science have no right to control what others do.

In conclusion, society has changed since the years Henrietta Lacks walked the John Hopkins halls. Although there have been many improvements in the tissue and cell rights people have. There are still scenarios and issues that are still being determined. Tissues from millions of Americans are used in research without their knowledge. These “clinical biospecimens” are leftovers from blood tests, biopsies and surgeries. If your identity is removed, scientists don’t have to ask your permission to use them. How people feel about this varies depending on everything from their relationship to their DNA to how they define life and death. Rebecca Skloot explains this in her New York Times article. These issues although complicated should have been resolved years ago, especially when the Lacks family history was revealed. I also believe that the agreement that was made with the Lacks family does little justice compared to the crucibles their family and Henrietta faced in her life.