Essay On Henrietta Lacks

On October 4, 1951, Henrietta Lacks died, but her cells, HeLa, continue to live today. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (2010), discusses Mrs. Lacks life, her cells after she died and how her cells are still living. Success has been reached by advancing medical research of multiple vaccinations, such as a polio vaccine (Skloot, 2010), but Henrietta and her family have been disrespected by not being reimbursed for Henrietta’s contribution to medical research. Henrietta’s autonomy has been violated multiple times throughout her life. This paper will discuss how her autonomy was violated and the doctors justifications on why they did what they did. According to Tubbs (2009), autonomy can be defined as “self-rule” or in the health care field as, “respect for various forms of self-determination and individuals control over one’s own body”. This means, that the doctor is obligated to respect their patients …show more content…
She knew something was wrong and did not want to be sick. But, was Henrietta told the whole truth before and during her treatments? Henrietta was never told the truth about her cells being taken and given to Gey to use for other medical research, Mrs. Lacks was also not told that these treatments she was going through would leave her infertile (Skloot, 2010). However, before her treatments she did sign a paper given to her by her doctors saying “loss of the reproductive function” (Skloot, 2010). Her doctors however did not make sure Henrietta understood what they meant; in her medical records it is reported that she said “she would not have gone through with treatment” (Skloot, 2010), if she knew that beforehand. It is the doctors duty to make sure the patient understand all the implication that come along with a treatment and they must also get verbal consent that the patient