What Are The Issues In The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Unethical

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In the novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, many situations arose due to bioethical and morality issues against the patients protection and privacy. Henrietta Lacks was a thirty-one year old, African American woman who developed cervical cancer during the 1950’s. However, samples of her normal and cancerous cells were stolen from here without consent or even knowledge. Tragically, Henrietta died shortly after many chemo treatments and the malignant cancer spread to every organ in her body. The whole while her family knew nothing of these cells that were found to be “immortal,” creating a whole slew of issues. One major issue in the book is that Henrietta never gave permission or informed consent to the doctors for …show more content…
The book had a ten paged chapter including extensive medical records from Henrietta that the Lacks family had never seen or given permission to publish. The question arises was this situation and invasion of privacy as Henrietta’s medical records were released to the public, and does it make a difference that she has been dead for over thirty years? Because Henrietta’s case took place in the 1950’s, there were no laws to restrict publishers from using medical information that was given to them from a source (Skloot, 211). Gold claimed that Howard had given him the details but he was not entirely sure, he just knows that he talked to hima good amount. The disclosure of medical records by the reporter was questionable as it was common for the reporter to contact the family and ask questions, verify all of the facts, and inform them of the info that is going to be published. Yet more than just contacting the family, the Hipporatic Oath had been in circulation centuries and included patient confidentiality and stated that a physicain must promise confidentiality to the patient. Despite this all, the Hippocratic Oath was not a law, and merely a guideline. On the contrary, it can be said that this can all be disregarded because once a patient is dead, they have no right to privacy. This is displayed in the line “And the dead have no right to privacy-even if part of them is still alive” (Skloot, 211). Henrietta had been dead and gone for over thirty years, she did not have the right to privacy, therefore making this book completely just. Members disagree with this however saying that even if it is not a law to have privacy once the patient is dead, the family should be informed and asked if the information is ok to be published.

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