As a medical professional, it is not enough to not do harm, one must also do additional work to provide benefits to the patient (Coale, 2015). According to Henrietta’s attending physician Howard Jones, “Henrietta got the same care any white patient would have; the biopsy, radium treatment and radiation were all standard” (Skloot, 2010). Despite proper beneficial treatment, Henrietta’s death is linked with having a more aggressive adenocarcinoma, diagnosed years after her death, as well as being immunosuppressed due to syphilis. Even with change in diagnosis and knowing more about the role immunosuppression has with cancer, the treatment would not have changed (Skloot, 2010). Skloot points out that although the individual doctors may not have
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Additionally, justice also refers to how commodities should be distributed throughout a community (Coale, 2015). There are numerous examples of inequality spread throughout The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta had to travel 20 miles to receive medical care from Johns Hopkins, because it was the only hospital to treat African American patients. If Henrietta would have arrived for medical care at a “white- only hospital, the staff was likely to send [her] away, even if it meant [she] might die in the parking lot” (Skloot, 2010). It is unfair that four generations after slavery was abolished, Henrietta had no money, little education, and died in excruciating pain (Skloot, 2010). It is difficult to feel anything but a great sense of remorse for how difficult Henrietta Lacks’ life was. However, these conditions also laid the foundation for medical decisions that could only be considered just in the 1950’s. Skloot reveals that late into Henrietta’s treatment, the physician stops blood transfusions until “her deficit with the blood bank was made up” (Skloot, 2010). As the only hospital treating African American patients, Johns Hopkins had to allocate resources among all of the African American patients. Henrietta, a terminally ill patient, was not going to benefit as greatly from a blood transfusion as another patient, so the physician had to make a decision to stop …show more content…
HeLa cells are the “one of the most important things to ever happen in medicine” (Skloot, 2010). Henrietta’s biopsy aided in the development of the polio vaccine, standard culture mediums, cell cloning, as well as identifying human chromosomes which led to genetic research on Down Syndrome, Klinefelter Syndrome and Turner Syndrome (Skloot, 2010). Scientists were able to use HeLa cells to discover how radiation, nuclear bombs, and extreme gravity all effect humans (Skloot, 2010). HeLa cells were also able to replace animals in some studies of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals (Skloot, 2010). Regardless of the disputes on how the cells were obtained, a consequentialist would view the advancement in science HeLa cells has provided, and secondarily all of the lives she has improved, as reason enough to consider the removal of Henrietta Lacks’ tumor an ethical
Additionally, justice also refers to how commodities should be distributed throughout a community (Coale, 2015). There are numerous examples of inequality spread throughout The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta had to travel 20 miles to receive medical care from Johns Hopkins, because it was the only hospital to treat African American patients. If Henrietta would have arrived for medical care at a “white- only hospital, the staff was likely to send [her] away, even if it meant [she] might die in the parking lot” (Skloot, 2010). It is unfair that four generations after slavery was abolished, Henrietta had no money, little education, and died in excruciating pain (Skloot, 2010). It is difficult to feel anything but a great sense of remorse for how difficult Henrietta Lacks’ life was. However, these conditions also laid the foundation for medical decisions that could only be considered just in the 1950’s. Skloot reveals that late into Henrietta’s treatment, the physician stops blood transfusions until “her deficit with the blood bank was made up” (Skloot, 2010). As the only hospital treating African American patients, Johns Hopkins had to allocate resources among all of the African American patients. Henrietta, a terminally ill patient, was not going to benefit as greatly from a blood transfusion as another patient, so the physician had to make a decision to stop …show more content…
HeLa cells are the “one of the most important things to ever happen in medicine” (Skloot, 2010). Henrietta’s biopsy aided in the development of the polio vaccine, standard culture mediums, cell cloning, as well as identifying human chromosomes which led to genetic research on Down Syndrome, Klinefelter Syndrome and Turner Syndrome (Skloot, 2010). Scientists were able to use HeLa cells to discover how radiation, nuclear bombs, and extreme gravity all effect humans (Skloot, 2010). HeLa cells were also able to replace animals in some studies of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals (Skloot, 2010). Regardless of the disputes on how the cells were obtained, a consequentialist would view the advancement in science HeLa cells has provided, and secondarily all of the lives she has improved, as reason enough to consider the removal of Henrietta Lacks’ tumor an ethical