Henrietta Lacks And Ethics In Health Care

The main ethical dilemma in the Case of Henrietta Lacks and Debate over Ethics and Bio-Medical Research and Informed Consent is that researchers took and profited off of the cells of Henrietta Lacks without her consent and without compensating her or her family. There are certain facts that are important to understand in this case. The person who began this ethical issue was George Otto Gey when he used the cells made available to him that had been of Henrietta Lacks, creating the He-La cell line (Skloot, 2010). Sadly, at the time, informed consent did not yet exist and did not become doctrine in practice until the late 1970s which was long past Lacks’ time (Skloot, 2010). Even though informed consent was not traditionally practiced in public …show more content…
The most obvious of them would probably be the principle of autonomy. The ethical principle of autonomy refers to personal choice, control, and self-determination but more specifically to the patient’s right to receive accurate information about his or her health and treatment (Ethical principles in health care, 2016). This principle is being violated by not informing Lacks or her family of the cells that were taken. This principle realistically coincides with the ethical principle of veracity as well, or the duty to tell the truth (Ethical principles in health care, 2016). It wasn’t until 1971 that the Lacks family became aware that He-La cells existed and were being used worldwide and profited on (Skloot, 2010). This situation could have never existed as a growing ethical issue if Gey had told the family from the beginning and included them in the growing wealth profits from the He-La cells. It is unknown as to why he chose to not tell the family. Many factors could have contributed to this such as the segregation of the hospital in which she was treated or the culture of the times. One ethical principle that also is found to be violated in this case is beneficence, or the duty to do good (Ethical principles in health care, 2016). It is easy to see how the researcher, Gey, did not do good by not informing and including Lacks or the family. What is difficult to realize …show more content…
There are ethics committees in most hospitals now that are focused on the processing ethical issues and dilemmas that would be able to look over this situation and make decisions (Potter, Perry, Stockert, & Hall, 2017). This resource would be especially helpful because the it involves members from various backgrounds and various jobs to look over a situation and then come to a resolution. This committee also has the ability to take the resolution and go on to educate based on the issue (Potter, Perry, Stockert, & Hall, 2017). Another resource to utilize would be The Joint Commission. The Joint Commission is an agency that focuses on maintaining patient safety guidelines and they work directly with institutions. Utilizing The Joint Commission and other national institutions such as the American Nurses Association can help to identify the national standards of care and ethical practice and determine what went wrong in this specific case and determine how to resolve it (Potter, Perry, Stockert, & Hall,