Henritta Lacks Paper

The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells a fascinating story of a sample of cells that forever changed the landscape of scientific question. The curb tells the story of the family related to Henrietta Lacks. The book touches on the doctor and patient relationship. Henrietta Lacks cells (also known as HeLa) became involved in bringing informed coincide to the research field. The patient didnt always know what the doctor was doing to them. The doctor should always inform the subject of what they are doing and the purpose before the subject can consent.Informed consent is a profound procedure to ensure that a patient or client knows all of the risks and costs involved in a treatment. Up to 1947, the conceit of informed consent hadnt even crossed anyones mind. In 1947, the Nuremberg trials were held wherein 7 Nazi scientist were convicted of conducting unthinkable tests on Jewish subjects. This marked the first m informed consent entered anyones conscience. It still wasnt law. It was just an ethical code which had no legal bindings.Then ten years later, when scientist Southman was injecting HeLa into patients bodies without telling them how dangerous it was and around of them died and an investigation ensued. This caused a division between people and doctors. Some doctors decided against informed consent because it would interfere with their research practices. There was great fear amongst the African American community about doctors kidnapping them and doing all sorts of wild tests on them. There was some truth to these apprehensions.Doctors would regularly test on African Americans with consent. In the book, when the doctors ask Day if they can do an autopsy they didnt give him the whole elaborate. But that wasnt the rule back in those times. The problem with explaining the details to people is that they simply wouldnt understand what the doctor was talking about. The patient had no clue what a cell was. So rather than explain what they were doing in de tail they would just tell that it would benefit their children. This is wrong, doctors shouldnt take the easy way out.They should inform their patients of the extent of their intentions. The doctors would prey on the black communitys ignorance in the medical field. The doctors should have just told them their intentions. In todays atmosphere, the rights of patients are more protected than they were in the 1950s. Doctors now have a legal and ethical duty to inform patients in all areas. Therefore, more information is available to patients so they are able to make intelligent and informed decisions on their medical treatment and use of their tissue, cells or organs.