OBSERVATIONS, QUESTIONS and QUOTATIONS
Each student must write his/her O.Q.Q as a post on the HeLa Discussion blog.
Then, each student must claim another student's O.Q.Q to respond to, answer or analyze. Next, each student must post her or his response to the O.Q.Q in the blog
Everyone will be assessed both on her/his O.Q.Q. and on his/her response. Strong responses will be thoughtful, fully articulated, and useful for the class's understanding of the material. See Assessment Rubric.
Then, each student must claim another student's O.Q.Q to respond to, answer or analyze. Next, each student must post her or his response to the O.Q.Q in the blog
Everyone will be assessed both on her/his O.Q.Q. and on his/her response. Strong responses will be thoughtful, fully articulated, and useful for the class's understanding of the material. See Assessment Rubric.
Alessandra Spadaro
ReplyDeleteOBSERVATION:
Throughout the book, I noticed how the doctors abused their power of authority when discussing Henrietta's condition with herself and her family. The doctors didn't treat Henrietta in a fair manner, which could have been due to her race, gender, and social status. For instance, this situation can be seen when Dr. Gey took a sample of Henrietta's cancerous cells without her consent. When the Lacks family found out about this, they couldn't do anything in their power to change the situation. They didn't have enough money to sue the hospital and it was difficult for them to access Henrietta's medical records since the doctors were refusing to give them to her immediate family, which wouldn't have been the case for a middle or upper-class white family.
Adding on to this situation of the doctors mistreating African Americans at that time in Maryland, the fact that the doctors were sharing the information that they discovered with Henrietta’s cells to other doctors was a violation of her human rights. It wasn’t right for the doctors to one, take her cells without permission and two, share these cells with other doctors to study, all of this occurring without keeping Henrietta or her family updated. Again, these situations occurred because of Henrietta’s race, gender, and social status at the time in the States. However, I believe if Henrietta had been a white male with a particular disease, none of this would have happened. Who knows, maybe that man’s family could have been rich right now from his participation and contribution to the discovery of medication for other illnesses.
QUESTION:
How did the doctors at Hopkins take advantage of their position as white males and abuse their power of higher authority during the time of segregation in the States in regards to Henrietta's appointments and the lack of consultations she received during her visits?
QUOTE:
“She’s waiting patiently for us. There won’t be any words, just a lot of hugging and crying. I really believe she’s up in heaven, and she’s doin okay, because she did enough suffering for everyone down here." -Deborah
Observation:
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt that the research of HeLa cells, medicine and knowledge about diseases has been made possible in the medical fields. However, this cells were taken in an unethical way from a deceased patient, in this case Henrietta Lacks, where no consent was asked before taking them. Due to this, it has been discussed for many years whether or not should the doctors have asked the family before taking the cells from Henrietta giving them the recognition they deserve. In my opinion, I believe that consent should always be prioritized but on the other hand, I also believe that if the doctors hadn’t done this unethical practices, medicine would have never been able to evolve a such a rapid pace.
Question:
This consideration carry us to the following questions.
Should researchers always respect all ethical considerations even though this might mean that no further research can be carried out?
To what extent can an ethical consideration be ignored for the sake of research and the development of other possible treatments?
Quotation:
"Everybody always saying Henrietta Lacks donated those cells. She didn't donate nothing. They took them and didn't ask [...] What really would upset Henrietta is the fact that Dr. Gey never told the family anything—we didn't know nothing about those cells and he didn't care."
Angelica Response
DeleteResponse to Question (first):
For any type of research to be completely ethical you need to have consent, no matter what and even if you go on with the research at one point you have to debrief the family/person that unknowingly contributed to the research. If the person decides that he/she doesn't want to be used in the research then that needs to be respected, after all there is a law about this. Researchers need to be smart when carrying out investigations and if they play their cards right they can get the necessary information by simply asking and 'convincing' the required people to do so.
Angelica
ReplyDeleteObservation: HeLa cells have been used in countless laboratories all over the world to make endless research discoveries and tests. A real life example could be right after Gey announced the HeLa cell line it was used to create, the now, polio virus vaccine. The cells were used to propagate polio virus which then lead to the discovery of the vaccine. Henrietta's family never heard about the line, they were never informed about how Gey took a sample of Henrietta's cervical cell, this surely went against the trust of the family. The family never learned about the immortal cells until 24 years after Henrietta's death. Although I think the discovery of the immortal cell line was a turning point to research- we probably wouldn't know everything we know today if we never had them- and has led us to multiple findings I can't seem to wonder how it must have been for the actual family at the time.
Question: Do you think the death of Henrietta lacks who was a friend, mother, and sister to many can be compensated? Gey took Henrietta's cells without her knowing and therefore lead to the discovery of the first line of immortal cells but all of this happen without the knowledge of her family. Do you think, in any way, the death of Henrietta could be recompensed for both mental and physical hurt that was brought upon the Lacks family?
Quote: “They always yellin about ‘Them white folks gettin rich off our mother while we got nothin.’” Deborah sighed. “We ain’t gonna get rich about any of this stuff on my mother cells. She out there helpin people in medicine and that’s good, I just want the history to come out to where people know my mother, HeLa, was Henrietta Lacks...."
OQQ Sofía Gardeazabal
ReplyDeleteOPINION:
Definitely, Henrietta Lacks had suffered many injustices throughout her life. For Henrietta Lacks’s family things weren’t any better. They all suffered extremely. They didn’t find out about the “immortal cells” of Henrietta more than 20 years after. What is more, they did not even receive any financial contribution.
What doctors and scientists did to Lacks was undoubtedly unethical. Scientists used her cells without any consent. However, we need to take into consideration that thanks to the use and the further investigation of Lacks’s cells, there has been numerous medical advances, saving the lives of thousands of people. So, in my humble opinion, I think that using Lacks’s cells was worth it. Still, I think at least her family should somehow be compensated for it.
QUESTION:
Taking into consideration that this happened during the 1950s, if it had happened nowadays, would things have turned out the same? (would scientists use cells without consent and would the family be somehow compensated)
QUOTATION:
“if our mother cells done so much for medicine, how come her family can’t afford to see no doctors?”
Manuel Response
DeleteResponse to question:
I believe that if this had happened nowadays, Henrietta would have been treated ethically. Nowadays, society isn't as racist as during the 1950s. Also, ethical issues are more rigorously followed right now, and, if a doctor did something similar to Henrietta nowadays, the doctor would be sued and his or her license would be probably cancelled. Regarding the second point (would her family be compensated), I think they wouldn't. Her family isn't being compensated right now, meaning that even if Henrietta had been alive today and her cells would have been extracted from her nowadays, no compensation would have been given to her family. The only way I can think of that her family could have been compensated is if there had been a contract were it was legally stated they deserved the right to healthcare.
TERESA AMANN
ReplyDeleteObservation:
Cancer and cell research have reached many milestones in the scientific world and our knowledge on them has greatly improved if we look back on the last 50 to 100 years. One notorious key event in cell research was the discovery of HeLa cells (Henrietta Lacks cells) during the 1950's. HeLa cells were the first immortalized cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research. Her cells are still reproducing to this day! Thanks to Ms. Henrietta Lacks cells multiple studies have been conducted and she has saved many lives.
However, it is all not fun and dandy as back in the 1950's the United States was still very heavily segregated and racism against african americans and minorities in general was very present. Henrietta Lacks cells were taken without her consent, used and sold for research purposes. This has been the cause of many controversies lately…
Under the United States Constitution this is a clear invasion of privacy which is defined as “ an individual who unlawfully intrudes into another person’s private affairs, discloses his or her private information, publicizes him or her in a false light, or appropriates his or her name for personal gain.” It is safe to say that this situation clearly fits into this definition and therefore the hospital should have been prosecuted and charged as such. Many argue that even though she never gave consent her cells served for a greater good and this justifies the crime.
I personally believe that genetic information should be absolutely confidential and should remain private unless the owner gives permission to use or sell it. We are humans not guinea pigs and therefore should be treated like so. I do think that Ms. Henrietta Lacks would have given doctors permission to use her cells if they explained to her properly why they were so important and how useful they could be.
In conclusion, I believe the Henrietta Lacks case really reflects the situation of african americans in a segregated America and the injustices they faced on a daily basis. Even to this day we can still see her family being treated unfairly as they have never received any compensation for the robbery of her cells and they can not afford health insurance.
Question:
In your opinion how would have Henrietta Lacks treatment differed if she was white? Would she have been asked for consent? Or were all patients lied to because there was not enough information yet?
Quote:
“But first—though no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting sample or asked she wanted to be a donor—Wharton picked up a sharp knife and shaved two dime-sized pieces of tissue from Henrietta's cervix: one from her tumor, and one from the healthy cervical tissue nearby. Then he placed the samples in a glass dish.” (33)
Alessandra Response
DeleteResponse to Question: I think that if Henrietta Lacks was a white female, she would have gotten more information about her situation. However, I still think she wouldn't have been given all the details about her condition because she was a female and maybe the doctors would have thought that she was wouldn't understand everything being told about her condition. If Henrietta was white, I believe that the doctors would have asked for her consent since she was white and chances are, she had a lot of money too. Knowing that, the doctors would have, perhaps, tried to avoid a situation where they were getting sued for taking a patient's cell sample without permission.
Observation:
ReplyDeleteThe studies made on HeLa cells have made it possible to research a variety of diseases and hence develop effective treatments for them. As a result medicine has been able to progress in a rather astonishing manner, and their impact on society is extremely remarkable. Despite this, it could be argued that the use of HeLa cells is an example of unethical and wrongful practices. The cells were extractad from Henrietta Lack's body after she died from cancer. This was done without her or her family's previous consent, and as a matter of fact they were not informed about the ongoing studies made with Henrietta's cells until more than twenty years had passed. Nonetheless, it is due to this so called unethical study that medical research on cancer and other terrible diseases has been able to advance in the way that it has in the early years. For this reason, the book made me think on whether the purpose justifies the means when it comes to medicine and scientific investigation.
Question:
To what extent can ethical implications be ignored when it comes to performing body autopsies for necessary medical research?
Quotation:
"He repeated this process with about a dozen other cancer patients. He told them he was testing their immune systems; he said nothing about injecting them with someone else's malignant cells." (128)
Alessandra Response
DeleteResponse to Quote: This is exactly what shouldn't be happening in a hospital. This just shows how the doctors thought they were superior to their patients and that they had the right to manipulate them since their patients didn't know what was going on. Doctors used their power to test samples of cancerous cells that were injected into patients who didn't sign up to be lab rats. And then the doctors could have worsened that person's condition. If they were patients already diagnosed with having cancer, and then being injected secretly with malignant cells, could have just caused the person to be even sicker. The doctors were taking advantage of their position, which caused another person's life to be affected.