Henrietta Lacks: Ethical and Moral Issues in Nursing Research

This assignment analyzes the ethical and moral issues presented by the Henrietta Lacks case, focusing on its implications for nursing research. The assignment explores the lack of informed consent when Henrietta Lacks' cells were taken for research purposes. It highlights the significance of patient privacy and the impact on current researchers. The assignment references the use of cancerous cells and the ethical dilemmas in the research process. It also discusses the importance of obtaining consent before using any cells for research. The provided solution references the book "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" and its relevance to ethical considerations in medical research, specifically addressing the ethical implications of using cells without patient consent and the impact of this on the research community.

Running head: NURSING
Evidence Based Nursing Research
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1
NURING
Answer 1.
The IMARC Research it has been described that this book is a very good example of the
problems of moral and ethical issues. It explains about the lack of consent of Henrietta for
donating her cells for the preservation. During the treatment of the cervical cancer Henrietta was
being treated with the help of radium tubes which was implanted in her cervical walls. During
this procedure the doctors took the samples of the cancerous cells of her without taking her
permission. The privacy of the patient was not maintained in the hospital. At that time if the
doctors would have asked for the permission of Henrietta then today the students or the
researchers could have used these cells independently for the research (Skloot, 2013).
Answer 5.
Yes in this study the participant Henrietta was fully deceived as she was not being
informed that the cancerous cells were taken from her cervix for further studies. When Henrietta
lacks was admitted to the john Hopkins hospital there the surgeon took away the healthy cervical
cells for another doctor of that hospital who was doing tissue culture of the cells. In any case if
the doctors would have taken the permission of Henrietta, for taking her cancerous cells from the
cervix. Then it would have become a bit easier for the present researchers to use the cells freely.
But as they didn’t take any forms of permission, so it had difficult to use those cells freely
(Dimaano & Spigner, 2017).

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NURING
References
Skloot, R. (2013). The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, the sequel. New York Times, 23.
Dimaano, C., & Spigner, C. (2017). Teaching from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks:
Student perspectives on health disparities and medical ethics. Health Education Journal, 76(3),
259-270.