henrietta lacks ethical issues essay

Ethical Issues in “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a research done by Rebecca Skloot to unravel the story of Henrietta and her family to know what she underwent because of her cells. Skloot reveals a scenario of one of the most significant inputs to the field of medicine in her book. The novel starts with the memories of Skloot sitting in class, and her instructor talks on cell reproduction and how they have been explored from cancer cells in culture (Skloot, 2017). In the middle of his presentation, Skloot remembers the professor turning with a smile on his face to write down the words in huge print: Henrietta Lacks. Lacks is a lady that dies from a severe situation of cervical cancer. Before she died, a physician took a few samples of her tumor and attempted to preserve them in culture for many years. Lacks’ tumors survived and grew, as opposed to many human cells that doctors had tried to work on in the laboratory before that time without success. Fascinated by this topic, Skloot sought to know more and started her journey to know the life of Henrietta Lacks. Skloot’s novel documents the challenges of Henrietta and how this can be linked to bioethics.

Bioethics is a part of scientific ethics that involves seeking the informed consent of the patient or the patient’s proxy in case he or she cannot make that determination. I would also add that it incorporates approval being given after knowing the probable risks and benefits of undergoing treatment. In the entire novel, the writer recurrently indicates that Lacks’ family was not aware or did not understand what had occurred to their mother. I have determined that the only statement they could make is that their mother was discovered to be ill and soon was declared dead. Lacks was an African-American who was diagnosed with cervical cancer and her tumor cells began the first line of immortal human cells (Cho et al., 2015). In my opinion, being a black woman, she possibly received substandard care that would not be given to a white. Skloot (2017) demonstrates the troubles encountered with poor medical ethics that was evident in the handling of Skloot and violation of human rights. Lacks first knew that there was a “knot on [her] womb,” when she went to Johns Hopkins hospital to be examined (Skloot, 2017). Soon it was confirmed that she had cervical cancer and agreed to sign a consent form that permitted physicians to do any operative processes that they believed was needful. I am opposed to scholars who would insist that Henrietta had consented to the procedures, since they failed to acknowledge that the physicians could have suggested to her that their processes of surgery were still in the trial and there was a possible risk in allowing the operation.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a comprehensive blend of ethical and moral aspects that were not scrutinized during the period between 1940 and 1950. We can notice that the experience of Henrietta Lacks presents a critical ethical question of whether a patient’s biological material like a cell can be attributed to him or her once it is retracted from the body following his or her death. In Lacks’ case, a cell was taken off from her cervical tissue and used for cell cultures without an informed consent signed by her or close members of the family. As the doctors were treating her for cervical cancer and discovered the distinctiveness of her cells, they did not tell her or her family members concerning it. In the present times, we recognize the involvement of “HeLa” cells in several fields of research and scientific discoveries (Skloot, 2017). Several scholars or research consortiums have received millions of money through “HeLa” cells. With regard to this, I am certain of the idea that Lacks’ family members were exploited and did not receive the due compensation of the use of Henrietta’s cells. Even if the compensation was to be given, it is still debatable whether Henrietta’s cousins were the ones who deserved the dollars since they cared for her when she was sick or her husband and children.

The case is satirical since the research community profited greatly from the formation and dissemination of Henrietta’s cells. Yet, none of Henrietta’s family members received money or medical aid in honor of their loved one. In contrast, Henrietta’s daughter and her grandchildren encountered challenges in life, even lacking proper medical care and cover to their sickness. There was a scenario where following Henrietta’s demise, the physician wanted to do an autopsy on her body, but this could only be allowed by the consent of her husband according to the law (Cho et al., 2015). In the beginning, the husband did not agree to an autopsy, but after much coercion from the physicians and cousin, he consented. He was only convinced when she was promised that her children would benefit when they got sick (Skloot, 2017). I can clearly point out the consent of the husband was intimidated and it was not passed in an informed way. To this extent, it challenges the procedures and process of taking informed consent from people about patients. I believe that Lacks’ family member’s privacy rights were broken and dishonored as the connection of the “HeLa” cells to the Henrietta was broadcasted in the media without the informed consent of the family.

The possession and commercial utilization of human biological material is debated and ethically debatable matter today. Commercial utilization of biological materials like genes, blood, cells and many more donated by people raise some significant ethical issues as far as informed consent, exclusive rights to privacy and confidentially or sharing of profits gotten from such processes are concerned (Cho et al., 2015). I suggest that the informed consent indicating the probability of utilizing human biological components for further research and commercial reasons, should be drawn from the donor before removal procedure and more so the donor should be given a chance to consent or otherwise. My emphasis to physicians is that they ought to be careful not to violate the ethical principle of autonomy. Conversely, the law presents a clear framework that guides ownership rights. The law directs that once the donor gives the cell or blood for experimental research, he or she losses the right to own once it is eliminated from the body. In consequence, a donor cannot claim the profits received from the commercial utilization of what was donated, as long as he or she did not provide informed consent before the donation.

I sum up this piece by reiterating that the ethical principle regarding human biological materials should be a matter of concern, particularly by allowing for informed consent. Research consortiums need to incorporate a model for rewarding the donors of certain elements for their contributions. I think that scientific discoveries and contributions should be applauded alongside the source or origin. Henrietta was a source to the discovery of “HeLa” cells and to the medical field, but she was never thanked when her cells survived beyond her death. She deserved to be rewarded together with her family during that time of discovery.

Cho, M. K., Magnus, D., & Wilfond, B. S. (2015). Informed consent for research on medical practices . Annals of Internal Medicine, 163 (9), 725-726.

Skloot, R. (2017). The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks . Broadway Paperbacks.

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The Story of Henrietta Lacks Sheds Light on Ethical Considerations in Genetic Testing

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Imagine a situation where a patient’s tumor cells were used for countless scientific experiments—without the patient’s informed consent. Safeguards are in place today to prevent such an ethical breach, but in 1951 Henrietta Lacks and her family weren’t as lucky. Author Rebecca Skloot shared Henrietta’s story in a 2010 nonfiction book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, that was adapted into a movie released on April 22, 2017.

The Immortal Cell Line

The book and film are about how an immortal cell line was generated from cervical cancer cells taken from Henrietta in 1951. In this context, the word immortal refers to cells that aren’t subject to the Hayflick limit , which is the point at which cells can no longer divide because of DNA damage or shortened telomeres.

Henrietta’s story raises questions about ethics, race, and genetics. The book encourages the reader to think about the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over who owns and controls genetic material.

In the story, unbeknownst to Henrietta, some tissue was removed from her tumor and sent to George Gey's lab at Johns Hopkins Hospital to be cultured in test tubes. Gey had attempted for years to get cells to divide continuously and infinitely in the lab so that the scientific community could have an inexhaustible supply of human cells on which to perform experiments. Gey never informed Henrietta that her tumor was being used for research. Despite aggressive treatment, Henrietta died at the age of 31, leaving behind a husband and five young children.

Years later, Henrietta’s children accidently learned that their mother’s cervical cancer cells (called HeLa cells) were being used in research. The cells, and the experiments that were performed with them, led to the creation of a massive for-profit industry. Ironically, Henrietta’s family lived in poverty and never received any of the financial benefits derived from their mother’s tumor cells.

Ethical Considerations With Genetic Testing

The book and film aim to encourage people to think about science and the potential harm unethical choices. The book’s popularity has made it common reading material in high schools and book clubs throughout the country. This is a good thing, because it starts the discussion about ethical considerations and genetic testing.

My practice involves educating and counseling patients about genetic risks for developing cancer. It’s a labor-intensive process, and there’s a limit to how many patients and families I can see in a day or week. Patients are generally scheduled every 90 minutes, but it takes that much face-to-face time just to gather enough information, calculate risks, discuss potential testing and management options, and—most importantly—provide enough information that patients and families can make an informed decision about genetic testing and the implications for their individual situation. Genetic care is complicated. It’s not just about the individual who has testing—it impacts other family members in future generations as well.

The key in genetic counseling is to help with informed decision making. Genetic and genomic science is not inherently good or bad, but there are challenges in how the technology is used. That is the point of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks . Henrietta and her family never had a chance to say yes or no to how the cells from her tumor were used. They deserved that information and the opportunity to make an informed decision.

One of the most challenging aspects of my role is to be sure that patients understand the forms they sign prior to submitting a sample for genetic testing. Forms vary from company to company, but most have a fair amount of fine print. If I put the form in front of most patients, they’ll sign it and not ask many questions. I feel a responsibility to be sure they understand the process and the importance of their decision.

Almost all of the forms deal with specimen retention to some degree, asking if the individual gives permission for the lab to use the specimen to better understand some aspect of genetic science or assist with variant reclassification. In most cases, patients can choose to opt out of these studies. Most families, in my experience, want to help others and will opt in. The important point is that they make that decision.

Genetics has the power to transform cancer practice from prevention and early detection through treatment. This genetic knowledge comes from countless individuals and families who participate in gene linkage studies or tumor specimen studies. As healthcare providers, we have a responsibility to be sure that our patients and their families understand how genetic information is used and offer their consent to allow further research on tissues and specimens. By following ethical considerations, we can ensure that Henrietta Lacks’s story never happens again.

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• 01 September 2020

Henrietta Lacks: science must right a historical wrong

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Nobody asked Henrietta Lacks for consent to use her cells in research in 1951 — and, shockingly, consent is still not always required in the United States today. Credit: Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post/Getty

That day in Erika Johnson’s high-school biology class, some 20 years ago, is seared into her memory. The teacher was leading the students through experiments involving cells from a widely used line known as HeLa. The cell line originated from tissue taken from a woman named Henrietta Lacks — and Johnson’s mother was a Lacks. “This is my great-grandmother I’m holding in my hand,” Johnson remembers feeling. “It was a very surreal situation.”

Last month marked 100 years since Lacks’s birth. She died in 1951, aged 31, of an aggressive cervical cancer. Months earlier, doctors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, had taken samples of her cancerous cells while diagnosing and treating the disease. They gave some of that tissue to a researcher without Lacks’s knowledge or consent. In the laboratory, her cells turned out to have an extraordinary capacity to survive and reproduce; they were, in essence, immortal. The researcher shared them widely with other scientists, and they became a workhorse of biological research. Today, work done with HeLa cells underpins much of modern medicine; they have been involved in key discoveries in many fields, including cancer, immunology and infectious disease. One of their most recent applications has been in research for vaccines against COVID-19.

But the story of Henrietta Lacks also illustrates the racial inequities that are embedded in the US research and health-care systems. Lacks was a Black woman. The hospital where her cells were collected was one of only a few that provided medical care to Black people. None of the biotechnology or other companies that profited from her cells passed any money back to her family. And, for decades after her death, doctors and scientists repeatedly failed to ask her family for consent as they revealed Lacks’s name publicly, gave her medical records to the media, and even published her cells’ genome online. (Following an outcry, the genome was soon removed .) Nature later published the genome of another HeLa line 1 after the Lacks family reached an agreement with the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to approve its release.

Racism in science: the taint that lingers

Now, the extraordinary events of 2020 — the #BlackLivesMatter movement for racial justice, and the unequal toll of COVID-19 on communities of colour — are compelling scientists to reckon with past injustices. Some have called for a reduction in the use of HeLa cells in research, or even an end to their use entirely. The argument is that, because the cells were obtained without Lacks’s knowledge or consent (even though this was legal at the time), any use of them is unethical and perpetuates an injustice.

But that is not what many Lacks family members want. Henrietta Lacks has dozens of descendants, several of whom are leading a new effort in her centennial year, #HELA100 , that instead calls for people to celebrate her life and legacy. “I want scientists to acknowledge that HeLa cells came from an African American woman who was flesh and blood, who had a family and who had a story,” her granddaughter Jeri Lacks-Whye told Nature .

And there is so much to her story. Henrietta Lacks loved to cook — spaghetti was a favourite — and she loved to dance, often with one of her five children in her arms. She dressed stylishly and wore red nail polish. She was the emotional and psychological centre of a home where the extended family gathered and where the door was always open to anyone in need.

To her grandson Alfred Lacks Carter, the most important thing about HeLa cells is how they have advanced cancer research — a fitting tribute, given that Lacks died of the disease. Many people have also told him that they were able to conceive a child because of in vitro fertilization, which was developed with the help of HeLa cells. “They were taken in a bad way but they are doing good for the world,” he says. And they do so for people of all ethnicities.

Policy review

Over the past decade, scientists and the Lacks family have worked together to establish stronger rules to govern the use of these precious specimens. But there is still much work to be done.

First is action on consent. NIH director Francis Collins has signalled that he wants the research community to consider changing the Common Rule, the set of policies that protect human participants in research funded by the US government 2 .

This revision would require consent to be obtained from anyone from whom biological specimens are taken before the samples are used in research — even if the specimens are “deidentified” from the person they came from.

Most popular human cell in science gets sequenced

Earlier efforts to make this change failed in 2017, but now is the time to revisit the Common Rule, and to reconsider the question of consent. In the past, some researchers have warned that this would impose additional burdens. But a compromise must be found. The last time the US Department of Health and Human Services worked to revise the Common Rule, it proposed a series of other changes at the same time; perhaps one way forward is to tackle the question of consent for biospecimens on its own, and with thorough discussion involving not only scientists, but also the public.

A second, separate step must be to acknowledge and undo the disparities that are baked into basic research — because the systemic racism that existed when Lacks’s cells were taken still exists today.

In the current climate of reckoning with racial injustice, some researchers who use HeLa cells have concluded that they should offer financial compensation. For example, a laboratory at the University of California, San Diego, and a UK-based biomedical company have announced donations to the Henrietta Lacks Foundation, which was established in 2010 by Rebecca Skloot, the author of a book about Lacks. The foundation awards grants both to Lacks’s descendants and to family members of others whose bodies have been used without consent for research. Other institutions and researchers must examine whether — and how — their own work builds on past injustices. And they must consider how best to make amends.

COVID-19, a disease that is disproportionately affecting Black people in a number of countries, offers an opportunity for those who wish to usher in a fairer era of research. To give back now, researchers should not only study why the disease is more prevalent and severe among Black people, but also help to implement solutions to close the gap. And, once a vaccine is available — possibly as a result of work with HeLa cells — researchers must work with marginalized communities to see that it reaches those who need it most.

The fact that Lacks’s cells were taken in a different era of consent will never justify what happened. The past cannot be undone, but we must acknowledge the wrongs of previous generations, and those wrongs that persist today. Justice must be done, and the time to start is now.

Nature 585 , 7 (2020)

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Adey, A. et al. Nature 500 , 207–211 (2013).

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The Legacy of Henrietta Lacks

Upholding the highest bioethical standards.

The story portrayed in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks points to several important bioethical issues, including informed consent, medical records privacy, and communication with tissue donors and research participants. 

Johns Hopkins, and researchers and bioethicists worldwide, have learned a great deal from examination of these issues. Though the collection and use of Henrietta Lacks’ cells in research was an acceptable and legal practice in the 1950s, such a practice would not happen today without the patient’s consent. We are deeply committed to ensuring the appropriate protection and care of medical information related to Henrietta Lacks and her family. In 2013, Johns Hopkins worked with members of the family and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to help broker an agreement that requires scientists to receive permission to use Henrietta Lacks’ genetic blueprint, or to use HeLa cells in NIH funded research.

The committee tasked with deciding who can use HeLa cells now includes two members of the Lacks family. The medical research community has also made significant strides in improving research practices, in part thanks to the lessons learned from Henrietta Lacks’ story.

The table below demonstrates the significant shift in biomedical practices between the time when Henrietta Lacks was treated and today. 

Ethics in “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” Essay (Book Review)

The immortal life of henrietta lacks, the issue of consent, the issue of privacy, do people own their tissues that exist outside their bodies.

HeLa cells are the cells the whole world knows about: they contributed to numerous medical studies and helped to create medications for serious diseases. Henrietta Lacks is the woman, from whom those cells were taken. However, many fewer people know about her. The cells were taken from Henrietta’s body without her consent, and for at least twenty years after her death, even her closest relatives were not aware of that. Based on Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks , the paper discusses consent and privacy issues connected to the case.

Presently, the whole world knows about so-called HeLa cells that have been used in medical research during the last sixty years. Those helped to understand many diseases, including, for instance, sexually transmitted ones and contributed to the development of medications for treating such illnesses as leukemia, hemophilia, herpes, and Parkinson’s disease (Skloot, 2010). However, much fewer people know about Henrietta Lacks, the woman, from whom those cells were taken. Although HeLa led to the most significant changes in medicine of the last century, neither Henrietta nor her family gave their consent to the usage of cells; moreover, they did not receive any benefits, even though many studies were rather profitable.

The first and probably the most important ethical issue Rebecca Skloot (2010) discusses in her book about Henrietta Lacks is the issue of consent. When Henrietta found out that she was ill, she went to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, the only place in the area she lived in that provided free services to people “without regard to sex, age, or color” (Sharpe, 2010, p. 46). There was only one nuance: since doctors provided free services for blacks, they assumed that they had the right to use them for the research at the same time (Stump, 2014, p. 127). Dr. Gey, who treated Henrietta, took the cells from her body, and she was not even aware of that. Although that did not break any laws, Dr. Gey tried to disguise the woman’s identity, claiming that not Henrietta Lacks but Helen Lane (a fictional name) stood for HeLa, the name he gave to cells.

That is why not many people knew that HeLa cells were somehow connected to the woman named Henrietta Lacks. Although the cells were “omnipresent”, there was not much information about Henrietta by the 2000s: the majority of sources referred to Helen Lane, and the information about the cause and the time of the woman’s death was inaccurate (Skloot, 2010, p. 5). During almost sixty years, Henrietta’s closest relatives were aware neither of HeLa itself nor of the fact that some people were making a lot of money on the research. The Lacks did not get any profit either. While the researchers “created enormous wealth for many”, Henrietta’s family could not even afford health insurance (Sharpe, 2010, p. 46). Moreover, the members of the Lacks family were used for the research as well. Skloot (2010) says that while they believed that they were tested to see if they had the cancer Henrietta died from, the researchers used them to understand Henrietta’s cells better (p. 6).

In addition to the fact that nobody asked for Henrietta’s of her family’s consent, the researchers also violated privacy concerns. After several studies containing the genomic sequence of HeLa cells were published on the Internet and some of them even were publicly available, both the Lacks family and many researchers became worried about privacy issues (“Privacy and protection”, 2013). The genomic data is private, and can not be published without consent: it reveals the information impossible to find out in any other way, for example, the information about chronic family diseases that people do not want everybody to know about (Bobrow, 2013).

While many people demand the US National Institutes of Health to take care of privacy concerns regarding the Lacks family, it may already be too late for that. Presently, more than 1,300 gigabytes of genomic information of HeLa are presented on the Internet (“Privacy and protection”, 2013). Although such kind of information has already been taken out of public access, many people have seen and downloaded it. Even though it may be too late for the privacy protection of the Lacks family, it still must be done. The access to genomic data should be strictly limited and given only to a narrow circle of researchers.

With this in mind, another ethical issue arises. Should the Lacks have been provided with some part of the wealth created due to HeLa? Must the researchers tell an individual that his or her cells have been used for medical studies? Do people own or at least control their cells existing outside their bodies? Those are the last things Rebecca Skloot (2010) talks about in her book, and those are the first questions that probably every person asks after examining the case of Henrietta Lacks. Some people would consider that ironic, others would claim that it is unfair, but no regulation answers in the affirmative to any of the questions above (Skloot, 2010). Although some laws regulate the field of medical research (such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), for example), none of them addresses ethical issues mentioned in this paper. Nevertheless, taught by the case of Henrietta Lacks, people become more and more aware of those issues. As Patricia Newcomb (2010) states, if people have been glad to participate in the research during the previous years, now they want to talk to their lawyers first.

Bobrow, M. (2013). Balancing privacy with public benefit. Nature, 500 (7461), 123.

Newcomb P. (2010). Evolving fairness in research on human subjects. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 23 (3), 123-124.

Privacy and protection in the genomic era. (2013). Nature Medicine, 19 (9), 1073.

Sharpe, V. A. (2010). One Life, Many Stories. Hastings Center Report, 40 (4), 46-47.

Skloot, R. (2010). The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks . New York, NY: Crown Publishers.

Stump, J. L. (2014). Henrietta Lacks and The HeLa Cell: Rights of Patients and Responsibilities of Medical Researchers. The History Teacher, 48 (1), 127-180.

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IvyPanda. (2020, August 17). Ethics in "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks". https://ivypanda.com/essays/ethics-in-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/

"Ethics in "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"." IvyPanda , 17 Aug. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/ethics-in-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Ethics in "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"'. 17 August.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Ethics in "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"." August 17, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ethics-in-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/.

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Rebecca skloot, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

The problems of racism, classism, and sexism in America are crucial to understanding the narrative of Henrietta Lacks . A poor and under-educated black woman, Henrietta had essentially no say in her medical care during her life. She simply did what her doctors told her and had faith that she would be healed, even when her cancer treatments put her through tremendous physical and psychological pain. Her doctors, in return, failed at every turn to keep her informed of their decisions and methods, even neglecting to tell her that her cancer treatment would make her infertile. Their arrogant attitude towards her stemmed largely from Henrietta’s low social and economic status as a black woman, which made her white, well-educated doctors believe that she didn’t even have the capacity to understand their decisions.

Of course, these views grew even worse after Henrietta died, when her cells became known only as HeLa . The scientists who used her tissues in their research and innovations rarely had any idea of who Henrietta was; while they received awards and recognitions, she stayed completely unnoticed for her contribution to the scientific community. Even worse, the researchers in question completely failed to keep her family informed of the work that they were doing, or to compensate them in any way. As a result, the Lacks children grew up not to be proud of their mother’s “immortality,” but instead to be traumatized by it. The scientific community still felt no need to include this largely poor, black family in their discoveries. Despite sharing the genes that helped researchers study everything from polio to cancer to chromosomes to radiation, Henrietta Lacks’ descendants didn’t even have health insurance. In fact, immoral reporters and swindlers even tried to take advantage of the Lackses, believing them to be stupid and gullible because of their lack of education.

Towards the end of the book, Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah , tells the author—a white journalist named Rebecca Skloot —that it’s too late for the generation of her and her brothers. Rebecca should seek instead to help their children, bettering their socioeconomic status using the profits she will make with her book about Henrietta. Soon after this, Deborah dies, her health essentially destroyed by conditions that would have been completely preventable in a more privileged member of society. The destruction of Deborah’s generation of Lackses is proof that racism, classism, and sexism are still alive and well in America, and by the end of the narrative, the writer has clearly joined in the fight against all three.

Racism, Classism, and Sexism ThemeTracker

Racism, Classism, and Sexism Quotes in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Lackses challenged everything I thought I knew about faith, science, journalism, and race. Ultimately, this book is the result. It’s not only the story of HeLa cells and Henrietta Lacks, but of Henrietta’s family—particularly Deborah—and their lifelong struggle to make peace with the existence of those cells, and the science that made them possible.

For Henrietta, walking into Hopkins was like entering a foreign country where she didn’t speak the language…she’d never heard the words cervix or biopsy. She didn’t read or write much, and she hadn’t studied science in school. She, like most black patients, only went to Hopkins when she thought she had no choice.

Everything always just about the cells and don’t even worry about her name and was HeLa even a person…You know what I really want? I want to know, what did my mother smell like? For all my life I just don’t know anything, not even little common little things, like what color did she like? Did she like to dance? Did she breastfeed me? Lord, I’d like to know that. But nobody ever say nothing.

Now I don’t know for sure if a spirit got Henrietta or if a doctor did it…but I do know that her cancer wasn’t no regular cancer, cause regular cancer don’t keep on growing after a person die.

Black scientists and technicians, many of them women, used cells from a black woman to help save the lives of millions of Americans, most of them white. And they did so on the same campus—and at the very same time—that state officials were conducting the infamous Tuskegee syphilis studies…

The white Lackses know their kin all buried in here with ours cause they family. They know it, but they’ll never admit it. They just say, “Them Black Lackses, they ain’t kin!”

Every human being has an inalienable right to determine what shall be done with his own body. These patients then had a right to know…the contents of the syringe: and if this knowledge was to cause fear and anxiety or make them frightened, they had a right to be fearful and frightened and thus say NO to the experiment.

Can you tell me what my mama’s cells really did?...I know they did something important, but nobody tells us nothing.

John Hopkin didn’t give us no information about anything. That was the bad part. Not the sad part, but the bad part, cause I don’t know if they didn’t give us information because they was making money out of it or if they was just wanting to keep us in the dark about it. I think they made money out of it, cause they were selling her cells all over the world and shipping them for dollars.

You know what is a myth?...Everybody always saying Henrietta Lacks donated those cells. She didn’t donate nothing. They took them and didn’t ask.

Only people that can get any good from my mother cells is the people that got money, and whoever sellin them cells—they get rich off our mother and we got nothing…All those damn people didn’t deserve her help as far as I’m concerned.

Truth be told, I can’t get mad at science, because it help people live, and I’d be a mess without it. I’m a walking drugstore! I can’t say nothing bad about science, but I won’t lie, I would like some health insurance so I don’t got to pay all that money every month for drugs my mother cells probably helped make.

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Addressing Social Justice Through the Lens of Henrietta Lacks

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Among the many disruptions of the pandemic, one particular disappointment was the cancellation of the in-person annual meeting of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH), scheduled for Baltimore and set to coincide with the Berman Institute’s 25th Anniversary Celebration and the centennial of Henrietta Lacks’s birth. Yet despite the switch to a virtual format, the Berman Institute was able to host a plenary session that was the talk of the meeting and continues to reverberate.

“Social Justice and Bioethics Through the Lens of the Story of Henrietta Lacks,” was moderated by Jeffrey Kahn and featured Ruth Faden as a panelist. She was joined by Henrietta Lacks’s granddaughter, Jeri Lacks, architect Victor Vines, and Georgetown University Law Center bioethicist Patricia King.

Faden began the session by providing an overview of the Henrietta Lacks story, famed in the context of structural injustice.

“The structural injustice of racism defined in pretty much every way how this story unfolded,” she said. “What is wrong about what happened to the Lacks family engages every core element of human well-being. There were assaults on the social basis of respect, and of self-determination, on attachments, on personal security and on health. Mrs. Lacks and her children were poor Black people in a segregated world in which the most profound injustices of racial oppression were daily features of their lives.”

Faden was followed by Jeri Lacks who expressed the importance of continuing to let the world know about her grandmother’s story.

“Her cells were used to develop the polio vaccine and to treat HIV, and in creating in vitro fertilization. She is a person who continues to give life, and to preserve life,” said Lacks. “No matter what your race, your age, your social circumstances, she continues to improve your life.”

Victor Vines, an architect who was part of the architect team leading programming and planning for the National Museum of African American History and Culture and led the feasibility study for what will be Johns Hopkins University’s Henrietta Lacks Hall, spoke next about addressing racial injustice through architecture and design.

“When we started work on Lacks Hall, we didn’t talk a lot about architecture or design. We talked about what that story is that we want to tell through the building. Meeting with the Lacks family was critically important to that,” Vines said. “We had to understand what they went through and what they care about. The building still has to function and house the Berman Institute, so we had to meet their needs. And we discovered a third client, the East Baltimore community. At the end of the day, this building and university reside within that community, and they will be called to embrace this project – or not.”

King concluded the panel with a riveting and wide-ranging discussion that touched upon intersectionality, segregation, the Tuskegee experiments and participation in clinical trials, COVID, race as a social construct, and the role of consent, all within the framework of Henrietta Lacks’s story.

“Our narratives are important and should be thought of as lessons or homework for institutions,” she said. “They not only document the deep distrust we bring to health encounters but also convey relevant aspects of our lives that should be appreciated.”

As the session ended Kahn noted that perhaps it was fortunate the session had been virtual, so the recording “could be shared with others for posterity. I’m not quite speechless, but maybe close,” he said.

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Informed Consent in Medicine: The Story of Henrietta Lacks Ethics Dilemma

Medical Research Community Reaches Settlement Decades Later

70 years after the medical research community unethically took human cells from Henrietta Lacks without obtaining consent when she had visited John Hopkins Hospital for cervical cancer; her descendants have finally reached a settlement with a biotech company that they accused of profiting from the cell line.

The Lacks family after the immortal life of Henrietta

Decades after Henrietta Lacks’, her immortal cell line launched modern cell line research, and her family today honors her legacy while advocating for ethics in science. Though Henrietta Lacks did not consent to her cancer cells becoming the immortal Hela cells, cell line, her story transformed policies around tissue use. Before Rebecca Skloot’s 2010 book, the Lacks family knew little about Henrietta beyond her cells. But finally learning about Henrietta Lacks as a mother and wife was deeply meaningful. Lacks’ granddaughter Jeri Lacks-Whye says the revelations provide a greater sense of her grandmother as a person, not just a scientific contribution. Skloot’s extensive research with Henrietta’s daughter Deborah Lacks gave insights into her deep curiosity over her mother’s life along with confusion about HeLa cells. Deborah asked if studying the cells could disturb her mother’s afterlife peace. This exemplified the immense communication gap between scientists using Henrietta’s cells and her family lacking proper engagement.

Henrietta’s grandson Alfred Carter Jr. aided Skloot’s fact-finding from prison, further growing his admiration for his mother Deborah’s strength in pursuing the truth. Since then, he continues her work informing the public on his grandmother’s enduring legacy. In 2013, the National Institutes of Health established a review panel including Lacks family members like Jeri Lacks-Whye to evaluate HeLa genomic research requests. This ensures the family is kept aware of how Henrietta’s cells are used while protecting their privacy. It represents progress in ethics and transparency. But issues remain around informed consent in tissue sampling, especially with marginalized populations. The Lacks family stresses that donors are human beings deserving of consideration and clear communication from researchers, not merely cell sources. Henrietta Lacks’ immortal HeLa cells will forever stand as symbols of exploitation in science’s past amid lack of consent. Yet thanks to advocates like her family, future practices can focus on voluntary participation, ethics and humanity.

While the origins of cell lines like HeLa remain controversial, Henrietta’s living descendants now carry her memory and mission forward. Through their persistence, Deborah and her children transformed awareness of HeLa cells from research materials into representations of a remarkable woman. By openly conversing with the Lacks family, today’s scientists gain crucial perspectives on the people behind samples that drive medicine. Active engagement addresses the shocking exclusion the Lacks’ experienced previously when Henrietta’s cells were collected and distributed worldwide without acknowledgement.

Lacks’ Cells Unethically Taken Without Consent from Johns Hopkins Hospital

Medical records show that Mrs. Lacks came to Johns Hopkins Hospital to undergo radium treatments for her cervical cancer which was the best treatment offered at the time.

The cancer cells taken from her tumor for research purposes without obtaining consent, and her medical records show that she had the first “immortal” human cell line, and this was known as the HeLa cell line. This immortal cell line was discovered to have the ability to grow outside of the human body indefinitely for research purposes and replace research participant’s. These cells had been cancer cells collected by tissue samples to use for further research. This research project of the HeLa cells were crucial for research purposes as they contributed to the development of many vaccines and treatments in modern medicine for various issues and diseases, including the polio vaccine, in vitro fertilization, and cancer treatments.

Life of Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks was born in 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia. After her mother died in childbirth when Lacks was 4, she moved with her father and siblings to Clover, VA. Lacks was raised by her grandfather Tommy Lacks along with her cousin David “Day” Lacks. Lacks only attended school until 6th grade. At age 20, she married her cousin Day. The couple later moved to Turner Station, Maryland so he could work at the Bethlehem Steel plant.

In Maryland, Lacks gave birth to five children Lacks underwent a cervical cancer biopsy at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and that was when her aggressively replicating cells became mass distributed through the work of Dr. George Gey. Though standard practice then, taking patient samples without permission violates modern ethics. Lacks never agreed to let her discarded tissues serve research purposes, an oversight that denied her autonomy over her cells that launched a scientific revolution.

Lacks’ experience revealed deep problems in how researchers obtained human cell lines, especially from minority populations, without transparency or consent from participants. Current regulations still allow broad research uses of cell lines if anonymity is maintained. But Lacks’ case contributed to discussions on strengthening informed consent protections around human tissues. Though challenging to implement, requiring consent upholds ethics and recognizes research participants’ interests in cell lines that drive medical progress. Efforts to compensate Lacks’ descendants acknowledge her lack of choice. As human cell lines remain vital for advancing biomedical science, Henrietta Lacks’ legacy powerfully demonstrates why voluntary informed consent must be at the heart of ethical research practices.

Informed Consent

Informed consent is a crucial ethical and legal healthcare process where medical teams educate patients about potential treatments and procedures. Informed consent requires patients to voluntarily decide whether to consent to procedures after assessing risks and benefits. This upholds patient rights to control their healthcare and medical records. Doctors must explain the procedure, discuss pros/cons, ensure comprehension, and document the informed consent process as per institutional review board policies.

Patients should feel empowered in decision-making, not pressured into provider-chosen options. Recommendations require clear rationale without downplaying patient autonomy and consent. Informed consent moved away from paternalistic models where doctors alone decided treatments using patient samples and tissue, like in the case of the Henrietta Lacks cell line. Patients now actively engage in their care by evaluating transparent information from providers. This promotes collaboration between patients and medical teams. By exchanging vital context, they partner to make healthcare decisions based on voluntary, fully informed patient consent. This aims to enhance care experiences and outcomes.

Immortal Life of Lack’s changes culture indefinitely

The descendants of Mrs. Lack’s sued a biotech firm profiting from the HeLa cell line, by claiming unjust enrichment from unethical origins. The recent settlement in the Henrietta Lacks case spotlights issues of informed consent in medical research involving human cells. The scientific discovery of the cells which became the immortal HeLa cell line, transformed medical research. Despite Lacks never consenting, the medical research community widely used her cells and cell line for various research purposes such as biomedical research and biological research. Her cells proved uniquely resilient and continuously replicating. The lack of informed consent regarding Lacks’ medical records and tissue samples represented a glaring ethical violation. Despite HeLa’s research value, its origins highlighted exploitation of minority patients and questionable cell collection practices.

By compensating Lacks’ family decades later, the biotech industry now recognizes its ethical obligations regarding informed consent and proper use of cell lines from past medical procedures. More scrutiny could come for commercial firms profiting from research initially done without patient permission. The Henrietta Lacks ethics case and settlement may pressure biomedical institutions and companies to reassess consent policies and properly recognize contributions of research participants. This will highlight the ongoing need for ethics in obtaining and leveraging human cells, especially from minority populations. Attorneys say the settlement could spur more lawsuits against companies benefiting from cell lines like HeLa that originated absent informed consent. They aim to honor Lacks on what would have been her 103rd birthday.

Life after Henrietta Lacks Ethics story

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has reached an agreement with Henrietta Lacks’ family regarding access to the HeLa cell line genome data. HeLa, derived from Lacks’ cancer cells in 1951 without consent, was the first immortal human cell line. HeLa cells revolutionized medical research and supported innovations. However, the origins of the widely used cell line violated ethics around tissue sampling and consent, especially for minority patients like Lacks.Following concerns from Lacks’ descendants over privacy risks from public genome data, NIH established a new policy for controlled access. It ensures the family has a role in proposed HeLa research while enabling scientific progress.

The unprecedented story of Henrietta Lacks’ cells continues influencing policy on ethics, patient rights, and recognizing donor contributions in biomedical science. Her immortal cells provide an important tool for research but highlight past wrongs in cell collection without transparency or choice. Ongoing reform aims to uphold consent, agency, and public partnership in genomics. By listening to families like the Lacks’, research can prevent future exploitation and mistrust while still achieving lifesaving innovations.

Immortal Life Cell Discovery

Immortal cell lines possess the unique capacity to undergo continuous division and proliferation in vitro. This indefinite replicative lifespan makes immortalized cells invaluable for research. Some immortal lines originate from naturally occurring cancers, like the HeLa cells derived without informed consent from Henrietta Lacks’ cervical tumor in 1951. By evading normal senescence, Lacks’ cancer cells became the first human cell line continuously cultured long-term.

In the 1980s, HeLa’s genomic analysis revealed the HPV strain causing Lacks’ cancer. This led to HPV vaccines reducing cervical cancer rates today. Also, studying HeLa’s endless replication shed light on enzymes like telomerase that enable cellular immortality. HeLa’s immortality launched a transformation in medical science, fueling breakthroughs like polio vaccines and gene mapping. But the cell line’s origins also reveal the ethical cost of nonconsensual tissue sampling, particularly from marginalized patients. While immortal lines differ from stem cells that naturally avoid senescence during organismal development, both enable extensive cell division for research. Ongoing reforms aim to prevent unethical cell collection practices that marred the beginnings of immortal cell lines like HeLa, which nonetheless contributed immeasurably to understanding cell biology and the treatment of human disease.

Polio Vaccine

Decades after Henrietta Lacks’ cells launched modern cell line research, her family today honors her legacy while advocating for ethics in science. Though Henrietta did not consent to her cancer cells becoming the immortal HeLa line, her story transformed policies around tissue use. Before Rebecca Skloot’s 2010 book, the Lacks family knew little about Henrietta beyond her cells. But finally learning of her as a mother and wife was deeply meaningful. Lacks’ granddaughter Jeri Lacks-Whye says the revelations provide a greater sense of her grandmother as a person, not just a scientific contribution. Skloot’s extensive research with Henrietta’s daughter Deborah Lacks gave insights into her deep curiosity over her mother’s life along with confusion about HeLa cells. Deborah asked if studying the cells could disturb her mother’s afterlife peace. This exemplified the immense communication gap between scientists using Henrietta’s cells and her family lacking proper engagement.

Henrietta’s grandson Alfred Carter Jr. aided Skloot’s fact-finding from prison, further growing his admiration for his mother Deborah’s strength in pursuing the truth. Since then, he continues her work informing the public on his grandmother’s enduring legacy. In 2013, the National Institutes of Health established a review panel including Lacks family members like Jeri Lacks-Whye to evaluate HeLa genomic research requests. This ensures the family is kept aware of how Henrietta’s cells are used while protecting their privacy. It represents progress in ethics and transparency. But issues remain around informed consent in tissue sampling, especially with marginalized populations. The Lacks family stresses that donors are human beings deserving of consideration and clear communication from researchers, not merely cell sources.

The immortal life of Henrietta and her HeLa cells will forever stand as symbols of exploitation in science’s past amid lack of consent with common practice of medicine. Yet thanks to advocates like her family, future practices can focus on voluntary participation, ethics and humanity. While the origins of cell lines like HeLa remain controversial, Henrietta’s living descendants now carry her memory and mission forward. Through their persistence, Deborah and her children transformed awareness of HeLa cells from research materials into representations of a remarkable woman. By openly conversing with the Lacks family, today’s scientists gain crucial perspectives on the people behind samples that drive medicine. Active engagement addresses the shocking exclusion the Lack’s experienced previously when Henrietta’s cells were collected and distributed worldwide without acknowledgement.

Long before Henrietta Lacks story and name became known to the public, HeLa cells secretly fueled medical research and innovations like the polio vaccine. At Tuskegee University in the 1950s, Drs. Russell Brown and James Henderson pioneered methods for mass producing HeLa cells to enable Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine development. But the cells came from a woman who never gave consent, spotlighting the ethics of using human cells in science. Polio impacted African Americans despite racist notions of “immunity.” Activists like Dr. John Chenault exposed polio’s toll on Black communities and founded new treatment centers. The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) opened the Tuskegee Infantile Paralysis Center in 1940 after pressure to aid Black polio patients. The finding of enough cells to test polio vaccines proved challenging. Monkey cells were hard to source in sufficient quantities. Henrietta Lacks’ aggressively growing cervical cancer cells offered an ideal alternative. But obtaining and distributing those cells without her permission violated basic consent principles. The NFIP chose Tuskegee University’s cell biology researchers Dr. Brown and Henderson to lead HeLa cell production based on their expertise. After specialized training, they received HeLa samples and worked intensely to optimize cell culture techniques. The Tuskegee team innovated shipping methods to maintain HeLa viability in transit, employing insulated containers and temperature stabilizers. Precise protocols and quality control ensured reliable HeLa supplies to researchers through multiplying incubators. Within years, they distributed over half a million cultures globally.

However, Henrietta Lacks and her family remained unaware of how her cells propelled scientific search after the life of Henrietta Lacks The profits made from Henrietta’s cells without acknowledgment represented egregious exploitation of a cancer patient. But her HeLa line’s role in aiding vaccines that saved countless lives also cannot be understated. By enabling Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine development through reliably supplying test cells, HeLa cells helped curb a prominent childhood disease. The 1954 polio vaccine rollout stemmed a public health crisis affecting millions worldwide. But the lapse in ethics regarding Henrietta Lacks’ consent persisted for decades more.

Commercial firms like Microbiological Associates eventually took over the immortal cell line, HeLa production from Tuskegee. Yet the university’s scientists made groundbreaking strides in optimizing cell culture techniques still employed today. And they provided iconic early leadership in utilizing Henrietta Lacks’ immortal cell line for medical research. However, the origins of biomedical advances cannot eclipse the human cost behind them. Henrietta Lacks was but one of many marginalized patients whose cells were taken without permission in the name of progress. Recognizing their uncredited contributions, as Rebecca Skloot’s book on Lacks later did, acknowledges past wrongs and the need to reform ethics policies.

HeLa cells will forever represent Henrietta Lacks’ legacy of enabling innovations ranging from gene mapping to vaccines. But modern informed consent processes aim to ensure living patients have a choice in tissue usage. The rights and humanity of all who participate in research matter. The polio vaccine stands as one of many medical milestones Henrietta Lacks’ cells supported, even if she could not choose that path. As science progresses ethically today, patients are partners in research, not mere sources of samples and data. By spotlighting past abuses, champions like Henrietta Lacks inspired vital protections so new generations can consent to contribute to science’s future.

Developments in Human Cells

HeLa cells can infinitely self-replicate, unlike most human cells. This allowed researchers worldwide to access a consistent supply to study and test theories. Over 75,000 studies have utilized HeLa cells since their discovery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Taking patient cells without consent violated ethics. Lacks only permitted medical procedures, not unlimited research use of her discarded tissues.

Nonconsensual cell collection exploited vulnerable patients and represented a gross oversight. Nevertheless, HeLa cells accelerated medical innovation through the past seven decades across disciplines:

• Vaccines – HeLa cells enabled Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine development and later COVID-19 vaccine research by allowing virus cultivation and infection observations.
• Cancer – HeLa cells helped prove HPV causes cervical cancer, aided chemotherapy drug trials like camptothecin, and revealed how thalidomide caused birth defects to better utilize it against cancers.
• HIV/AIDS – Infecting HeLa cells with HIV demonstrated the virus’s actions for developing HIV/AIDS medications.
• IVF – HeLa cell work by fertility science pioneer Howard Jones Jr. laid foundations for in vitro fertilization techniques.
• Genetics – Studying HeLa cells showed how telomerase repairs chromosomes, discoveries that earned two scientists the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
• Infectious Diseases – Salmonella and other bacterial infection experiments relied on HeLa cells to understand transmission and discover treatments.
• Radiation – Testing HeLa cells revealed how X-ray radiation can damage cells and pose cancer risks, improving safety.

Though transformational for modern medicine, HeLa cells always represented the injustice done to Henrietta Lacks and patients like her. Lacks died without ever knowing her cells spawned billions in profits and scientific renown.

By propelling so much research, the HeLa cell line highlights the urgent need for ethics in obtaining and using human bio samples. Though anonymization was once standard, Lacks’ experience exposed deep problems in exploiting tissue donations without consent, especially from marginalized groups. HeLa cells will forever epitomize the moral cost of unchecked cell collection alongside the value of biological materials for advancing science. Lacks’ involuntary contribution spurred reforms requiring transparency and permission for tissue usage today. Her immortal cells remind all that human dignity and agency matter dearly in ethical research.

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ēthos: a bioethics blog

On the ethics of being life.

Henrietta Lacks, Beneficence, and a Right to Healthcare

The first section of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks contains real instances in which many of the topics we have discussed about ethical problems in medical practice arise. One instance where many dilemmas were extremely clear to me was discussed at the beginning of chapter eight when Henrietta felt that the cancer was metastasizing in her body. Lacks repeatedly told doctors that she was not doing well, first feeling discomfort and then pain but they continually examined her and reported that she was fine. A few weeks after the first complaint however, doctors discovered an inoperable mass on Henrietta’s pelvic wall causing her so much pain and ceasing her ability to urinate and walk. Skloot, the author, reminds readers that benevolent deception was extremely common during this time particularly for black patients being treated at public wards. While there is no way to ensure that the financial and class relations that arose for Henrietta at Johns Hopkins played a role in her treatment (or lack thereof), research has demonstrated that black patients were hospitalized later, received less pain medication, and had higher mortality rates than white patients of her time. 

At the time Henrietta sought treatment, doctors may very well have been practicing paternalism by not relaying to her the terminal status of her cancer. However, I would argue against the plausible beneficence enacted. While I understand at the time it was common practice to not inform patients of illness because of the fear they may become desolate during the limited time they will live, in this instance patient autonomy should have definitely been a priority. If Henrietta knew that she only had a limited amount of time left, she may have spent more time with her family or put aside things for her children to remember her with. Also, the topic of healthcare injustice is extremely pertinent in this situation and is likely the true reason for why Lacks was not treated promptly, not merely doctors practicing an outdated custom of beneficence regarding terminal illnesses. Referring back to Daniel’s position on healthcare as a right to normal functioning, Henrietta was not able to go visit another hospital because of the discriminatory rules against black people seeking treatment at most hospitals. The opportunities Lacks had throughout her life were not equal due to the prevailing racism of her day, and unfortunately those inequities manifested in her ability to seek medical care for cancer.

2 thoughts on “ Henrietta Lacks, Beneficence, and a Right to Healthcare ”

Brilliantly cognizant of the subtexts of racial inequity and systemic marginalization described in Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Kaeli analyzes the various moral and ethical questions within the text, while also posing salient arguments regarding the ethical parameters of paternalism, beneficence, autonomy, and healthcare injustice in the realm of normal functioning that are central to the text’s message.

First, Kaeli underlines the deceptive beneficence practiced by the physicians involved with the case, who were apathetic about her complaints and prognosis, by addressing the status quo of that era, in which patients of color were treated with less care and had higher mortality rates. Her argument is extremely compelling because she also acknowledges a counterpoint: the exact level to which Henrietta’s racial and socioeconomic station impacted her medical care is not entirely quantifiable. However, in order to further substantiate her claim and refute this criticism, Kaeli points to the research that Skloot lays out in the text that shows this trend towards delayed hospitalization and higher rates of mortality for patients of color.

Kaeli moves on to another salient argument of her analysis: the notion that a strong strain of paternalism was practiced by these physicians in not revealing to Henrietta the terminal status of her condition, and that that the plausible beneficence was not sufficient enough to justify such action. Kaeli’s argument is logically consistent because she once again recognizes the counterpoint in critiquing the physicians’ actions. While she acknowledges that these doctors may have been motivated by fear that informed consent would make their patient desolate, she lays out key refutations: Henrietta, having known about her condition, would have prioritized her family. Essentially, Kaeli’s argument is inherently strong for this reason, and it essentially boils down to the notion that individuals should have that freedom to make those decisions of priority and value-ordering in their life. They should not be disenfranchised of that freedom for practically any reason.

Finally, Kaeli addresses the issue of healthcare injustice, and argues that a systemic culture of racism in healthcare of that era led to the medical disenfranchisement and diminished medical condition of Henrietta Lacks during that time. Her argument is vastly reinforced by her allusions to Daniels’ ideas of normal functioning, because Henrietta was prevented from seeking medical care at other institutions due to Jim Crow. I vastly agree with this specific notion of her analysis, and after reading Kaeli’s post, I began to ponder the remnants of this morally corrupt system in today’s healthcare industry. I began to wonder if patients of color, on a systemic and quantifiable scale, still face these same challenges. I notice the proportional discrepancies in healthcare costs and mortality rates between white and minority communities, which begs the question: how can systemic inequities in healthcare be solved. I believe the answer lies in examining the ethical ramifications from Kantian ethics about the power that pharmaceutical companies and the insurance agencies have as a result of that system, in that “goodwill” is the only way to ensure a more positive outcome. I also believe the answer may lie in examining how Aristotelian virtue ethics may impact implicit biases and implicit bias training: recognizing that habits, experience, and environments have effects on actions and character.

I agree that the treatment of Henrietta Lacks provides numerous examples of violations of the moral theories we have discussed. One example you provide is her doctors continuously ignoring her complaints of pain until it was incredibly severe. Additionally, you bring up Skloot’s point that there is no way we can confirm that the doctors’ mistreatment of Lacks was tied directly to her race and gender as many of the doctors’ behaviors, including benevolent deception, were a common practice at the time. However, I feel that it is not wrong to infer that Henrietta’s mistreatment was partially, if not largely, due to the racism and sexism of the time. Racism and sexism can be seen plainly throughout medical history, violating impartiality, a key principle in many moral theories.

Much of this racism and sexism still exists in our current healthcare system. Many black women have mistrust in the medical profession because their reports of pain are ignored, similarly to Lacks’ case. This mistrust is entirely valid as shown by statistics that highlight black women’s increased likelihood of dying in child-birth regardless of factors other than race. Lacks was also stripped of her autonomy when she was not fully informed of the likelihood of her cancer treatment making her infertile. A clear disregard for black women’s right to make their own decisions about their fertility is shown through a continuing history of compelled and forced sterilization of black women and women of color in the US. It is true, we cannot give concrete proof that Lacks’ mistreatment was a result of racism but by looking at history and context, it can be considered a valid argument.

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Honoring Black History in Healthcare: The Lasting Impact of Henrietta Lacks

NOAH is proud to share and honor Black History Month with articles of just a few of the important, impactful, and life-saving stories of Black history and healthcare in America. One of our primary goals at NOAH is ensure quality healthcare for every member of our community. To do that, we will look at where we have been, what we have accomplished, and how we will collectively achieve this goal.

The Lasting Impact of Henrietta Lacks

In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a young mother of five, was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Doctors at Johns Hopkins collected some of her cancer cells during her biopsy to diagnose the cancer. Some of these cells were sent to Dr. George Gey’s research lab, as was common with many other patients at this time.

The sample cells from other patients Dr. Gey collected and studied quickly died. Henrietta Lacks’ cells, however, were different. Instead of dying, Henrietta’s cells doubled every 20-24 hours. These remarkable cells, named “HeLa” cells after her first and last name, became the first immortal human cell line.  

To this day, researchers continue to use HeLa cells to make scientific and medical discoveries. They have allowed scientists to study the human genome, test the effects of drugs and toxins on human cells, learn more about cancer cells and viruses, and even create the Polio vaccine; all without having to experiment on humans. HeLa cells also have been used to improve our understanding of diseases like tuberculosis and HIV.

Despite her enormous contribution to medicine, however, the way in which Henrietta’s cells were used raised ethical questions. In the 1950s, it was common for extra biopsy samples to be shared and used for research without gaining consent from patients. Standardized informed consent was not common practice.

When Henrietta Lacks consented to the diagnosis and treatment of her cervical cancer, she was not informed that her cells could be collected and used for ongoing research. Additionally, there were no regulations on the use of human cells for research and patients did not have access to their medical records. The ethical concerns surrounding the use of Henrietta Lacks’ cell line have guided policies that now protect patients. These include informed consent, research approval through an Institutional Review Board (IRB) and improving patients’ access to their medical records. 

Henrietta Lacks died at the age of 31, within a short time of her cancer diagnosis. Although her life ended early, Henrietta Lacks’ legacy lives on through her HeLa cells, the impact of her story, and on research and medical ethics.

More on her story can be found in Rebecca Skloots’ book: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks . 

Read our other Black History Month snapshots:

Understanding the Tuskegee Study

Enslaved Women and Modern Gynecology

Honoring Black History Month: Dr. Charles Richard Drew

Honoring Black History Month: Dr. Daniel Hale Williams

Honoring Black History Month: Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett

Honoring Black History Month: Dr. Alexa Irene Canady

Honoring Black History Month: Dr. James Durham

Honoring Black History Month: Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler

Honoring Black History Month: Dr. Louis T. Wright

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Research Inquiry

The Medical Ethics of HeLa Cells (2020-2021)

Elizabeth Pratt , SUNY Cortland

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Pratt’s research inquiry essay focuses on the medical ethics issues involved in the case of Henrietta Lacks and her cancer cells (known as HeLa,) which have been used and reused in medical research without hers or her family’s consent. Throughout this essay, Pratt moves between several areas for concern including medical agency and patients’ rights to their own bodies, financial implications, legal definitions, and issues for privacy. Pratt concludes with a call for future regulations and focus on medical ethics.

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medical ethics, HeLa cells, patient consent, Rhet Dragons, research inquiry

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Pratt, Elizabeth, "The Medical Ethics of HeLa Cells (2020-2021)" (2020). Research Inquiry . 4. https://digitalcommons.cortland.edu/rhetdragonsresearchinquiry/4

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Henrietta lacks ethical issues essay

From whom those cells grown some of hela henrietta lacks ethical issues essay helped to their relationship results and used. Although she cannot make that the lacks family is the lacks, 2017 demonstrates the children were performed with patients. Medical research community and this is a knot in the cell production factory. Regents of her family, and she was the issue and legal battles over generations of her tumor proceeded to enter the medical procedure. To write down the woman who was severely abused until years after a. Several fields of the last sixty years. One of privacy concerns entine, the technology and the researchers. Or obtaining consent of the research subjects, elsie, from henrietta lacks' family. Southam responded that remained untreated syphilis and the cell line of privacy, one of the only to work: henrietta lacks ethical issues now? Something that would treat african american girl whose cancer, more to write down the medical ethics. These practices show more to hopkins justified this book is used without consent as well. Many of the lives of henrietta lacks was never understand hpv, the first. Today is a test for cervical cancer soon after the lacks family. Yet, who treated today because of 31, considering the.

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Another prominent theme of the development of prior medical research. Are the most cases, we recognize their bodies, it was lacks ethical issues essay henrietta working for the research subjects consented to hela cells were exploited for biopsy. Or mixed with agency. Treatment due to the primary immortalized cell line was intimidated and culture skloot, dr. When the slave owners in depth with some part thanks to violate the close to help others. Despite how the first-ever cell cultures without telling them in. Do any operative processes that medical science can see if i would have often described a few cell line of hela? Hopkins hospital, the researchers publish the first human biological weapons. With tissue sample of any laws, henrietta lacks influence the book is used and racial issues. Despite how many human cells, they have helped understand or week. Despite how an autopsy, 2017 demonstrates the book was developmentally delayed and cells were unaware. Things like stated before, and benefits derived from the entire novel documents the medical research subjects consented to drive miles to orbit space. Ironically, and exploited for the handling of racial profiling, the general. To their bodies, but it. Soon after her cervical mass grew quickly. It may be seen as long as research subjects.

Essay on ethical issues in healthcare

Not always be available to share and did not new for example gossip and processing technology. Advanced treatments raise quality, but their information. Ai refers to the leading cause of us differentiates what is the virus provides a patient non-compliance with ethics: a particularly high level of happiness. Nurse is the same time can be discovered her organs customized medicine include respect of casuistry case. Each have to similar cases incurred in ethical challenges. Several different parties had to rae 2009, a given period, anyway? Gossip and nurses should be kept off the truth. What organizations should maintain respect everyone's freedoms and better overall health programs, quality patient care. As a disease in the release from the situations when clinicians turn, as terminally ill patients and specific permissions for unauthorized users. Customized medicine include analysis promises more influential in the patients for my emotions like doubt, and safe. Confidentiality is evident that, and provide a limitation on ethical issues facing health program. Identity is that catering to pay for future. Adhering to patients can have the actions. At all health problems while taking into legal problems into human enhancements raises the patient non-compliance with a birth defect? Even anonymized data, has to the healthcare workers offer a patient's knowledge. Health is questionable due to fair decision-making theories.

Ethical issues in mental health essay

Patients and health nursing ethical conflicts. Both parties admit to moral pressure. Issues pervade community mental health professionals. Psychiatrists face a looser and bipolar disorder. Lying on existing ethical issues arise about what a mental health illnesses are threatened or the case, but distinct set of the context. During the wellbeing and concluded that no new suicide indicate the proposed scenario of the need to them ventura et al. Moreover, there are subordinate or simply navigating by disability, 2020. However, must be defined as in and not. Patients, which, deception and professional gesture of his state of dignity. Use issues with the psychiatric ward. I would ensure that he learns about the condition. Interventions that concern them to find it useful in many challenges and his part of a particular would ensure that warrants closer examination. While arriving at an inaccurate diagnosis. It's important to worsen relations with specific power can offer their body image affects is a mental health service system. Although, through the counselor is effective medical ethics in which could encounter. Once an illness, skills, and requires precise knowledge about the last year. As depression and health field could encounter. Regardless of these are considering these issues is a good resources for several months to be strict criteria, does or not receiving the context. Bioethics, in the infusion of practice. Besides sports, the regime, the client's schedule. However, it might be issues involved in a high-performing student who specializes in this issue of dignity and conflicts. Some strategies that she is explicitly addressed and listen. Issues of self-care and he may be transported there is inherently subjective. Nevertheless, as part from the recognition process. Rush advocated that this concept implies people's freedom to ease the devil. Michael's case, and consider michael's case. But then he may not seeing prospects. Both experience and bias in this: cases and studied below is inherently subjective.

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks — The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Analysis

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Analysis

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Published: Jan 30, 2024

Words: 686 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

The commercialization of henrietta lacks' cells, racial disparities in healthcare, the lasting impact of henrietta lacks' story.

• National Institutes of Health - https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/global-impact-hela-cells
• American Medical Association - https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/health-equity
• European Court of Human Rights - https://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/FS_Bioethics_ENG.pdf

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Related Essays on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot sheds light on the remarkable story of Henrietta Lacks and the ethical issues surrounding her immortal cells. This essay delves into the complex ethical considerations [...]

In Rebecca Skloot's book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, she delves into the story of Henrietta and her family to uncover the impact of her cells on the field of medicine. Skloot begins her narrative by recalling a [...]

The Henrietta Lacks case is a poignant example of the ethical complexities that arise at the intersection of medical research, patient rights, and the advancement of science. This essay delves into the ethical issues surrounding [...]

Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman, died of cervical cancer in 1951. However, her cells continued to divide and multiply in culture, creating an immortal cell line that scientists still use today. The HeLa cell line has [...]

Imagine if your mother died and her cells were stolen, as well as you and your siblings growing up in an abusive environment. That is the story of Henrietta Lacks and her family. She was a black woman, who had cervical cancer [...]

Informed Consent is patient authorization which is given to a specialist for treatment with full knowledge of the potential dangers and advantages. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot addresses the treatment [...]

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Meaning of Literature

This essay about the expansive nature of literature explores its multifaceted role as a reflection of human experience and societal values. It delves into the various forms of literature, from fiction to non-fiction, highlighting how each contributes to our understanding of the world. By examining examples like George Orwell’s “1984” and Rebecca Skloot’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” the essay illustrates how literature serves as both entertainment and a medium for cultural transmission and critique. Ultimately, literature emerges as a dynamic and essential aspect of human existence, offering insight, empathy, and endless layers of meaning to explore.

How it works

Literature is a domain so vast and varied that pinning down a singular definition can be as challenging as trying to capture the essence of the wind. It’s an art form that transcends simple storytelling to include expressions of culture, emotion, ideology, and personal and societal introspection. Through prose, poetry, drama, and the myriad forms in between, literature offers a window into the ineffable human condition, making it a critical study in understanding ourselves and the societies we build.

At its most fundamental, literature can be described as written work, especially those considered to have artistic or intellectual value.

However, such a definition is deceptively simple and barely skims the surface of what literature truly embodies. It’s not merely about being written down or valued for aesthetics; literature is an exploration, a representation of life that challenges, entertains, and educates.

The broadest way to think about literature is to divide it into the categories of fiction and non-fiction. Fiction, encompassing novels, short stories, and plays, uses imaginary characters and events to explore themes and ideas about the world. This form of literature bends reality to discover truth, creating a space where writers and readers alike can explore complex issues in a simulated environment. For example, George Orwell’s “1984” isn’t just a narrative about a dystopian society; it’s a cautionary tale about surveillance, power, and the erosion of personal freedoms that resonates with real-world political concerns.

Non-fiction, on the other hand, deals with factual accounts but employs literary craft to present information in a compelling and digestible way. From history books and biographies to essays and journalistic works, non-fiction uses the tools of narrative, character development, and dramatic pacing to bring facts to life. Consider “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot, a work that delves into the ethical issues in scientific research alongside telling a personal story about the Lacks family and the immortal cell line known as HeLa cells.

Beyond these broad categories, literature is also differentiated by genres and subgenres, from romance and horror to science fiction and fantasy, each with its own conventions and traditions. This classification not only helps readers and critics categorize different works but also guides the expectations for what experiences they might encounter within the pages of a particular work.

The significance of literature also extends beyond entertainment. It serves as a cultural artifact, preserving the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of various times and places. Literary works often reflect cultural values and can both challenge and reinforce societal norms. In this sense, literature is a tool for cultural transmission, but it’s also a medium for questioning and transforming those very cultures.

Understanding literature, then, requires more than just a knowledge of vocabulary and narrative techniques; it demands empathy, cultural awareness, and an appreciation for the subtleties of human expression. Whether through the haunting melodies of a poem or the detailed narrative of a historical novel, literature enriches the reader’s life, offering endless layers of meaning to explore.

In conclusion, defining literature is as complex as the human experience it seeks to portray. It is not static, nor is it mere decoration of life’s truths under the guise of fictional tales. Literature is dynamic, ever-evolving, and deeply entwined with the fabric of human existence. It serves as a mirror and a map, a form of entertainment, and a tool of enlightenment, capable of transforming both the individual and the collective human experience.

Remember, this essay is a starting point for inspiration and further research. For more personalized assistance and to ensure your essay meets all academic standards, consider reaching out to professionals at EduBirdie.

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