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Henrietta Lacks Research Paper

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The solution to Henrietta Lacks
The Ethics and Legal Solution
Natalie Smith
May 26, 2018
Medical Terminology, Law and Ethics

2 After reading the book of “The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks” a few years ago I was very amazed on how doctors back in those days just took bodily fluids and did experiments on patients without their permission. Since Henrietta was poor and doctors didn’t think it mattered if they took her cells it wouldn’t be any issues. Once they found out that her cells were able to be replicated infinitely in a lab they hit the gold mine of medical discoveries because they were able to find a vaccine for polio and breakthroughs in herpes, leukemia and even hemophilia and also were able to better understand numerous diseases that will help …show more content…
Although the ethical and policy issues associated with biospecimen research have long been the subject of scholarly debate, the story of attention of a much broader audience. The story has been a catalyst for policy change, including major regulatory changes proposed in the United States surrounding informed consent.
Ethically, a solution that could have been done is simply have the common courtesy in asking if it was ok to withdraw a few sample of her tissues for research purposes and answer any of her questions that she could have possibly had. Now that hundreds of labs across the world have had access to her cell for many years it is easily to say that Henrietta Lacks family feels that her privacy was not taken into consideration and even though her cells were used for great purposes, the way the whole situation was handled makes it more harder to be not be taken into consideration whether now her current family has any say so now about her cells. Making sure that the patient is well aware that their tissues can be used for research purpose is most of the time now explained that it is possible

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