Summary of the Book
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a book written by a journalist called Rebecca Skloot. The main antagonist in the book, Henrietta, is an African American woman who died in 1951 of cervical cancer, her cancerous cells went on to become the first immortal human cell line named HeLa. From the book, HeLa made it possible for some of the most vital discoveries of the 21 st century. The author of the book narrates how Henrietta made her first visit to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where medical practitioners told her she was fine. Eventually, Henrietta is diagnosed with cervical cancer and started treatment at the same hospital, though John Hopkins was one of the best hospitals in the country, were racists when it came to treatment of black Americans. The author explains more about the treatment and research on cervical cancer in the 1950s, to find more about the story of Henrietta, Rebecca tries to locate the family of Henrietta. The white journalist had exploited the family before, so the family becomes relentless to collaborate with Rebecca thinking she is another white journalist trying to exploit them again (Collins, 2015). Rebecca finally finds some of the family members who are angry because other people profit from Henrietta cells while they languish in poverty. After a time, Henrietta’s children grow up to start having children of their own. One of her sons is convicted of murder and jailed to fifteen years in jail, at these time HeLa cells continue to thrive aiding many researchers in creating different types of vaccine.
Eventually, Hopkins hospital contacts Henrietta’s family to study their genetic information, the daughter becomes fearful of the invite thinking she will be tested to see if she will die like her mother. Rebecca starts to explore controversies over making a profit using another person’s tissues. Though Rebecca made progress up to the court systems, the family was not helped at all, leading to their continual struggle in the 1980s. Deborah eventually has a stroke, where Rebecca visited them. During the visit, Deborah's husband asks Rebecca to tell the story of Henrietta to all the people present during the baptism of one of the grandbabies. Henrietta Lacks died, but still, her cancer cells live.
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Ethical Issues in the Story
The book Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks addresses ethical issues; these include; thoughtfulness and modern ethics; this is one of the major ethical issues revealed by this book. This comes out when Mary Kubicek went to collect autopsy samples from Henrietta’s body, not being accustomed to dealing with dead bodies; Mary focuses her eyes away from the eyes of Henrietta. When she notices the painted nails of Henrietta, she realizes that she is a human being and not just a collection of cells (Grady, 2015). This is astonishing because many echoed the same character of Mary, and never thought about the concerns of patients and their families, for example, the researchers should have seen Henrietta as a person, not just HeLa source.
Another ethical issue is Disclosure and Family Distress, after Henrietta being identified as HeLa donor, her family discovered that her cells were still alive, these were revelations they never understood and was alarming to them. Furthermore, when researchers took blood from Henrietta's family to test for their genetic markers for HeLa, the family thought that they were being tested for cancer, the disease which killed their mother. More medical details of Henrietta were being revealed without consultations from her family something that caused immense grief for her daughter Deborah, other members of the family were angered by the profits made their mothers tissues while they remained in poverty.
Events of What Happened Through the Eyes of Those Affected
The people affected most through the events in this book are Henrietta’s family, the activities surrounding their mother heart them emotionally, Joe the last born in the family ended up committing murder, this was as a result of anger he acquired as an effect, Behavior Analyst Certification Board (2014). The stakeholders in this story are the medical scientists. They had their agenda of acquiring medical breakthrough that would otherwise change the medical history, though they contributed greatly to the society, the authorities they used to accomplish their goals, was in an unwarranted manner.
Positive and Negative Outcomes of the Affected Parties
Medical researchers made great strides in the development of different medical vaccinations using HeLa cells, since the discoveries of these cells; there has been a major step in the field of science. The party affected negative are the Lackes, their family privacy was highly infringed into, doctors made reports concerning their mother without their consent, and these brought emotional disturbances to the family. They were also affected negatively when researchers were making a huge amount of profits from their family member tissues whereas they languished in poverty. There are different consequences associated with these outcomes; the family members were affected emotionally, for an example being Joe who was angered by the researchers and ended up committing murder.
Professional Code of Ethics
Professional codes of conduct from my profession agree with the ethical issues from this story; they apply to the story in a way that the privacy and family life of an individual should be protected. My ethical beliefs too apply to this story; thoughtfulness should be applied when dealing with matters regarding humanity.
Reflective Stance
I agree with the ethical issues presented in this book because they continue to be there as long as humanity exists, as long as families exist, people should be conscious in handling information regarding family, scientists should be mindful when dealing with a person’s cells, their identity should be at the forefront.
References
Behavior Analyst Certification Board. (2014). Professional and Ethical Compliance Code for Behavior Analysis. Retrieved from https://www.bacb.com/wp-content/uploads/BACB-Compliance-Code-english_190318.pdf
Collins, S. (2015). Elements of Storytelling in Medical Journalism. Medical Writing , 24, 4, 222-224.
Grady, C. (2015). Enduring and Emerging Challenges of Informed Consent. New England Journal of Medicine, 372, 9, 855-862.
