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The Argument Against Henrietta Lacks

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In 1951, Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Without permission, Dr.Richard TeLinde and Dr.George Grey took tissue samples from her cervix. Once the samples were taken her doctors attempted to grow her cells. Some cells died and some continued to grow. The ones that continued to survive were called HeLa cells. Later, the cells contributed to developing vaccines and medicines.
“I hereby give consent to the staff of The Johns Hopkins Hospital to perform any operative procedures and under any anesthetic either local or general that they may deem necessary in the proper surgical care and treatment of Henrietta Lacks.” This was the operation permit Henrietta signed. Both Richard and George had no idea that out of all people …show more content…
During the time Hospital Ethics were different from today. It was also a time when African Americans were used for research. It was ethical for Hopkins to take the cells without her permission because all they wanted to do was study the cells. They hadn’t planned to use it for anything else at the time. It became a problem with her cells continued to live. The fact that she wasn’t took that her cells continued to live in a lab wasn’t ethical.
Henrietta could’ve been treated better than she was. In my opinion if her cells were “immortal” then I would do and try anything I could to keep her alive. It wasn’t fair for them to take the sample because she wasn’t getting anything in return. It wasn’t fair for them to take the life out of an innocent person. It wasn’t fair for them to give up on her as easily as they did.
Hospitals don’t have the right to treat patients like science experiments doing things without their permission. As a hospital patient Henrietta was able to be well respected and should be completely aware of her illness. She also had the right to refuse a treatment and the right of privacy. Basically everything that she had the right to her wasn’t

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