Question

What are some of the ethical issues presented in the case of Henrietta Lacks? (From the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks about HeLa cells). Explain

Answer 1

In January 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a 30-year-old African-American lady from Baltimore, was determined to have cervical malignancy at the Johns Hopkins Medical Center. She was treated with radium brachytherapy, the standard of consideration at the time, yet her condition exacerbated. In August, seven days after she turned 31, she was admitted to the clinic with extreme stomach torment. Under three months after the fact, she passed on. A dissection demonstrated boundless metastasis of the first malignancy.

Henrietta Lacks had passed on, yet peculiarly, her malignancy cells have lived on. Unbeknownst to her and her family, Henrietta's specialists had tested her growth cells for research — a typical practice at the time, especially from patients treated in wards. Those cells were given to George Gay, a JHU scholar who had been striving for a considerable length of time to build up a tumor cell line that could be become outside the body. Henrietta Lacks' cells wound up being the principal cell line so settled.

The cell line was named "HeLa" by Gay’s research center right hand, who coded cell tests utilizing the initial two letters of the giver's first and last names. With Henrietta Lacks' cells, Gey could set up an undying cell line, i.e., a line of cells that would keep on separating uncertainly. The capacity of these cells to partition like this fit the line being utilized in various logical examinations since the 1950s, including Jonas Salk's improvement of the polio immunization.

Despite the colossal achievements accomplished utilizing the HeLa cell line, the case all things considered brings out genuine moral issues in regard to the agree of patients to having their tissue utilized for research. Lately, the case has pulled in huge consideration, with a book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, distributed by Rebecca Skloot in 2010 and now a HBO highlight film of a similar title created by and featuring Oprah Winfrey as Lacks' little girl. The film appeared on April 22.

Brittany Shields, PhD, a senior teacher in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, examined a portion of the issue raised by Lacks' story. "Henrietta Lacks' story has conveyed open regard for various moral issues in biomedical research, including the job of educated assent, security, and commercialization in the accumulation, utilize and spread of biospecimens," Dr. Shields says.

"In the United States, biomedical research at governmentally supported establishments must pursue the arrangement set by the Department of Health and Human Services. The momentum arrangement, known as the 'Regular Rule,' calls for educated assent and oversight through Institutional Review Boards for research led with individuals," she clarifies.

In any case, she proceeds with, "these directions could conceivably apply in various circumstances identified with biospecimens. On the off chance that an unknown biospecimen had just been gathered for another reason, educated assent is for the most part not required."

On account of Henrietta Lacks, or all the more accurately her relatives, an understanding was come to between the family and the National Institute of Health stipulating that the family should give assent when certain hereditary data gathered from the cell line is utilized. Notwithstanding, contention between the family and the medicinal research network has held on.