The particular book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is the well-known book which is written by Rebecca Skloot published in 2010. This book comprises on the story of an African-American woman who goes through with the one major form of the medical dilemma in her life. The author successfully discusses the life of the Henrietta Lacks with the consideration of the feature of the immortal cell line (Skloot, 2010). Here the focus is to critically review the book presented by Skloot to identify the specific ethical issues raised referring to the character of Henrietta Lacks.
The book effectively the life patterns of the Henrietta Lacks with the consideration of the immortal cell line. This particular immortal form of cell line known as the HeLa. This feature was explored from the Lack’s cervical cancer cells in 1951. The main concern related to this medical development is that HeLa was attained without the knowledge of Lack and ultimately become the reason for her death. She was a poor tobacco farmer who had no idea about the cells taken from her body. Undoubtedly, it is the one major development in the field of medicine which provides necessary assistance in the development of the vaccines for the different diseases.
It is notable to mention that this specific medical advancement raises many ethical issues related to the aspects of race and class. This book significantly highlights the ethical issues which have to face by Lacks and her family. A severe form of ethical dilemma and complex social concerns can be observed in case of the immortal life of Henrietta Lacks related to the feature of Hela cells. The ethical concern in case of Henrietta Lacks developed because medical researchers never consider the need for the consent of her or even from her family. She does not have any idea about her tissues samples to be used for the sake of research. The particular ethical concerns described by Rebecca Skloot can be identified as the features of consent, privacy, and compensation which were not considered in case of Henrietta Lacks.
Consent is one of the major concerns which was completely overlooked in case of Lacks. It is crucial to understand that Lacks was publically declare as the source of HeLa cells. The genome of HeLa cells attained by Lacks sequenced and published in a public database which negatively impacts the privacy rights of Lacks and her family. The particular perspective of ethics in case of Henrietta Lacks can effectively observe with the consideration of different theories of ethics. The particular aspect of the ethics of care is the normative form of ethical theory which provides indications about the feature of interpersonal associations and cares closely related to the element of moral action. The facet of ethics of care can be addressed in the specific case of Henrietta Lacks. This theory of ethics focuses the dependency of the individuals on each other. It is crucial for the people to consider the moral consideration to meet their needs. This particular consideration was not adopted in case of Henrietta Lacks which ultimately create the feature of an ethical dilemma.
Virtue ethics is another facet of the ethical theory which addresses the issue of ethics in terms of mind and character concerning to the individual’s approach. It provides the necessary consideration about the concept of virtues and how it can be effectively blended with the nature of the humans. This approach of virtue and ethics can be determined in case of Lacks in which medical practice does not involve the consideration of the moral obligations related to the case of Henrietta Lacks.
References
Skloot, R. (2010). The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Macmillan. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.pk/books?id=q6LiPaw0K3IC
