Henrietta Lacks Research Paper

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Faaiq Rizwan Dr. Catherine Marco BIOL 494 - EMRAP 14 March 2024 “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” Reflection "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" sheds light on the hidden narrative of Henrietta Lacks and her “immortal” HeLa cells, which profoundly impacted the practices in the field of medical research. Taking place during the era of Jim Crow Laws, Henrietta Lacks was a poor African American woman who was being treated for cervical cancer at John Hopkins University. Before treatment, Henrietta signed a consent to treatment form, allowing the doctors to perform the necessary operations. When being treated for her cervical cancer, Dr. George Gey requested tissue samples from all cervical cancer patients without their consent. Upon extraction …show more content…
My most notable impression is seeing the drastic revolution in informed consent that Lacks’ story helped to trigger. While undergoing treatment, she was never explicitly informed about the collection and use of her cells for research purposes. This lack of transparency voided the opportunity for Lacks to make informed decisions about her samples. Furthermore, Hopkins also drew blood from her children claiming it was for screening purposes, only for it to be revealed that it was being used for research without their knowledge. Seeing the profits made by the labs and the consistent dishonesty of scientists prompted an important and major change in research ethics. The relationship between a patient and a doctor is typically one of trust. However, the doctors completely abused this trust by making decisions without obtaining consent. Another example of this violation of trust was Chester Southam, who injected HeLa cells into prisoner cancer patients. Although they voluntarily agreed, they were told it was for an “immune system test”. This was a blatant lie from Southam, which the prisoner believed under the assumption of a truthful
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