The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Essay Example Lacks died of cancer but her cells live on. Henrietta Lacks’s story holds great importance because of the fact that there are several ethical issues that raises concern. The ethical issues raised in those times, exist even today in some places; however there are certain legal procedures and laws that lay down guideline for the ethics to be followed by researchers. The first ethical issue that comes to my mind is that of â€Å"confidentiality†. The ethical issue of confidentiality in research means that the identity, privacy and all information about the patient must be treated as highly confidential in nature. The identity of people being used for a particular research or study should never be revealed. It is the researcher’s responsibility to protect the identity. However, in Lack’s case, confidentiality was not maintained. The researchers did not reveal only her name but also revealed her race to the world. In those times, there were no binding laws that called for confidentiality on part of the researchers. Today, it is mandatory for researchers using human tissues to respect the privacy of the subjects and safeguard their identity. One of the most popular to keep things confidential is the use of pseudonymisation or use a code in place of real identification of the human subjects (Kalra et al, 2006) The next ethical issue worth that I would like to discuss is that of â€Å"informed consent†. Human tissues and cells are of great importance to the research world however these tissues and cells need to be procured from people with appropriate consent. People have the right to know how their cells are being used for research. In Henrietta’s case, she was not informed about her doctor’s decision of tumorous cell extraction. She was not even asked for consent. In the 1950’s, issues about informed consent was still in infancy stages, so Dr.Gey was not compelled in any way to ask Henrietta Lacks’s consent for