The Hela Cells are an immortal line of human cells that have been extensively used in medical research regarding cervical cancer. These cells were derived from Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman who died of cervical cancer in the 1950s ( Zimmer, 2013). After her death, doctors took a sample of her cells without the knowledge or permission of her family members. Since then, these cells have been widely used to perform many experiments on cervical cancer.
The utilitarian and deontological philosophical approaches can be used to develop decisions in healthcare cases. The utilitarian perspective states that decisions should be based on the greatest benefit to the largest number of people. In this case, the consequences of actions determine whether an action is ethical or not ( Mandal, Ponnambath & Parija, 2016). On the other hand, the deontological approach bases morality on the duty that individuals have towards one another. In this case, decisions can be regarded as moral for an individual despite producing negative outcomes to the society. I would use the utilitarian approach to evaluate Henrietta Lack’s case.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The utilitarian approach argues that the morality of an action is determined by the number of people benefiting from it. Based on this perspective, the decision by the doctors and researchers to use Lacks cells in studies is moral. This happens since that novel decision has led to many discoveries that have enhanced the prevention, management, and treatment of cervical cancer.
One ethical dilemma, in this case, involves using Lack’s cells for research without the consent of her family members. Another ethical dilemma is deciding whether the family members should benefit financially from the studies conducted using Lack’s cells ( Beskow 2016). Based on the utilitarian approach, the actions leading to getting Lacks cells should be ignored since the consequences of these actions have benefited millions of people around the world. As such, the belief that family members should benefit from the cells should be overlooked since they would undermine scientists' ability to conduct more studies that would help cervical cancer patients.
If I were in the situation of Ms. Lack's doctors, I would have made the same decision they made. I think that Lack's family would have jeopardized doctors' ability to acquire cells from Lack's body by asking for a large amount of monetary compensation. I believe the doctors' and scientists' decision was based on humane grounds since they sought to benefit cervical cancer patients.
References
Beskow L. M. (2016). Lessons from HeLa Cells: The Ethics and Policy of Biospecimens. Annual review of genomics and human genetics , 17 , 395–417. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-genom-083115-022536
Mandal, J., Ponnambath, D. K., & Parija, S. C. (2016). Utilitarian and deontological ethics in medicine. Tropical Parasitology , 6 (1), 5–7. https://doi.org/10.4103/2229-5070.175024
Zimmer, C. (August 7, 2013). A family consents to a medical gift, 62 years later. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/science/after-decades-of-research-henrietta-lacks-family-is-asked-for-consent.html
