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Why Is Henrietta Lacks Unethical

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Why Is Henrietta Lacks Unethical
Emily Parks Alexander AP Language 11 March 2024 Medical Ethics Synthesis Science and medicine is the most rapidly advancing facet of human knowledge, and has been since the Scientific Revolution. Germ theory, anesthesia, and chemotherapy, among many other advancements in the medical practice, have improved the lives of many in a way that is difficult to quantify. Now that mankind has reached such a point in healthcare, where pain and illness can be more successfully mitigated than ever before, it is ever so important that ethical and humane treatment is prioritized. Informed consent, humanization of patients, and proper compensation of individuals who influence medical advancement, are the most crucial aspects of medical ethics regulations in today's world. Comparatively, informed consent and similar …show more content…
It was there in that moment that HeLa became Henrietta Lacks: a person, a mother, a loved one. The name HeLa was so well known and widely worked with, yet Henrietta and her family were virtually unheard of. It is likely that this separation significantly contributed to the way Henrietta's cells were sold and shared, morally detached from the woman they were taken from. Recognizing patients and their microscopic parts as people, or as being from real people, rather than cases or specimens, increases the amount of respect and consideration that they receive, and is therefore highly important in the field of medical ethics. Lastly, privatizing and patenting scientific advancements and research poses ethical concerns regarding who will receive the profit, and if it is even ethical to patent the genetic and biological breakthroughs that someone else provided their body parts for. Independent laboratories reap the benefits of their privatized research, while their patients suffer “.being exposed to inappropriate therapies or not getting effective therapies.and exposure to unnecessary, harmful treatments.”(Sharfstein, Source
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