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Why Is Henrietta Lacks Unethical

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is the story of a woman, her family and the moral dilemmas they influenced in the medical, and research world. Author Rebecca Skloot, often references the lack of legislation and regulation when conducting research with human “subjects,” which has brought up these dilemmas. As I read through the story of Henrietta Lacks, I struggled to understand how some saw what they put her and her family through as moral, despite most of it being completely legal.
Not only is John Hopkins a well-known institute today, but also is where HeLa, Henrietta Lacks’ immortal cells, truly began. When taking these cells, there were no laws stating consent was needed. Human tissue was seen like trash; once it was out of the body, whoever collected it owned it. The doctors at Hopkins took the cells and sent them to a researcher named Dr. George Gey. Dr. Gey could do whatever he wanted to those sells with out consent or even knowledge of whom they belonged to. …show more content…
Despite not agreeing with breaking that contract, I understand how the doctors and researches associated with HeLa did not see the importance of getting informed consent. Science had come a far way since HeLa and many in the beginning thought that the cells would just die, as most had, or would not yield any significant findings. However, after the importance of theses cells were discovered, I do think the family should have been contacted. Many companies had made millions off these cells, while the family could not afford to see a doctor themselves. Informed consent is important in research, whether the findings of the research were important or not. It is some of the only protection participants have. As future speech Pathologists we are meant to advocate for out clients, and this is one of the many ways we can do

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