Reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Essay Example

Dr.Gey was interested in studying the abnormal tumor cells and extracted them from Lack’s body without her knowledge and took them with him for his research purposes. Henrietta dies but Dr.Gey successfully created a whole line of immortal cells that he name HeLa. But, this act is shrouded with a number of ethical issues. Professor Gregory pence PhD says that the key ethical considerations in the HeLa case were-Confidentiality, informed consent and the right to control the products of your own body (Buchanan, 2010).

Confidentiality is a right to remain anonymous in any research work. According to the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS), it is important to protect the identity of the subject and maintain research confidences (Palys & Lowman, 2000).It is the researcher’s responsibility to not divulge information about the research subjects to others. This is extremely important because many people want to remain anonymous and the researchers feel an obligation to respect their decisions.

Henrietta Lacks did not enjoy confidentiality in any nature. The researchers revealed the fact the HeLa cells belonged to her. They subsequently also divulged the information that Henrietta was African in origin which initiated several rumors about ill-treatment of blacks and brought about feelings of racism. Today, there’s a different scenario because bioethical guidelines lays down rules according to which anonymity of all subjects must be maintained especially when the subjects are human.

In most laboratories number and color coding are used. Another key ethical issue that surfaces in the book is that of informed consent. In Henrietta’s times there was nothing official about consent and even if there was a consent form, it lacked substantial information for the patient to understand what exactly he is consenting for. For example in the Canterbury vs. Spence case, Spence who suffered paralysis after a back surgery said that the doctors should explain in detail the consequences of a particular and that the consent forms should contain enough information to fulfill the patient’s informational wanting.

“In accordance with the Code of Ethics and Conduct, researchers should ensure that every person from whom data are gathered for the purposes of research consents freely to the process on the basis of adequate information” (Code of Human Research Ethics,2010). Henrietta was not asked for her consent by her doctor who extracted the tumor cells without Henrietta’s approval and used it for his studies. Today, owing to the presence of ethical boards it is a compulsion that researchers seek consent from their patients before procuring any body tissues and/or using them for research purposes.

The final ethical issue that I shall discuss about is the right of controlling the products of one’s own body. In Henrietta’s case she had no right to decide for what purposes her cells could be used and by whom. She had no control over what the researchers did with her cells after extraction. Henrietta’s cell earned the researchers millions of dollars, yet her family was deprived of the proceedings. Her family was forced to live in abject poverty while Henrietta’