Ethical dilemmas arise one being the Lacks family had no idea that a sample of her tumour had been taken and sent to George Gey. In chapter three, Henrietta goes for her diagnosis and treatment and signs an operation permit form. I agree Dr. TeLinde’s research was important but not justifiable because he did not properly let his patient be conscious that her cells would be used. One questions whether or not appropriate consent was given because there was not any proper consent. I believe at least letting Henrietta know what they were doing would be the ethical thing to do.
Her father is willing to give the hospital a great donation which will help with the construction of specialized facilities; which we all know is greatly needed. Her parents are also unable to bare anymore children. Furthermore, Lisa has suffered with a lupus-like immune deficiency her whole life. She has done nothing to bring this onto herself, whereas Jerry was a steroid user and Ozzy was a crack-cocaine user. She is the most deserving and this decision will benefit the most people morally, this is thanks to her father’s generous donation.
For example, through the Socratic seminar I was able to learn that there isn’t a clear definition of bioethics or informed consent. It is really hard to define theses two key terms from the book. Informed consent could be about a lot of things. It could describe the medical procedure used, what’s its purpose, what is the significance of the results from the procedure, the financial value, and as well as the post procedure follow-up. Although the Socratic seminar and the novel left many questions unanswered for me, it made me understand more why things are they way they are in the healthcare and scientific research industries.
All this limits the progress made to medical treatment in the renaissance. The renaissance was a period of great improvement of medical knowledge but there was a lack of new medical treatments. I think the greatest reason for this is that ignored new ideas which disproved Galen and still believed in supernatural ideas because it meant the no new knowledge and theories we accepted meaning they couldn’t be spread and
The twins, Jodie and Mary, are connected at the pelvis; Mary is unhealthy and would die if separated from her sister. However, the procedure would save the life of Jodie. The girls' parents opposed this medical separation and are unhappy with the British courts and doctors' . The author states “there is not justification for deliberately destroying innocent life” The parents of Mary and Jodie should have the right to do what they think is the best for their children. Although no actual studies were done, the hospital said that if the twins continued to be connected that there was an 80 to 90 percent chance Jodie could not survive more than a few months if she continued to support the weak heart and lungs of Mary, whose brain is underdeveloped.
After going through experimental drug treatment, which were unsuccessful, Mrs. Adkins decided to contact Dr. Kevorkian. Janet Adkins was still living her life as normal as any other healthy person. She was not debilitated by her illness. According to Dr. Murray Raskind, Mrs Adkins personal physician, she and her husband belong to a right to die organization, known as the Hemlock Society, and that Janet Adkins did not have the patience for the Alzheimer treatment that Dr. Murray had administered. It is claimed that Janet did not want to continue living her life if her illness could not be haulted.
No one in the Lacks family had been informed of the existence of their mother's cells until a researcher called in the early 1970s wanting to test the family. With this news, the family felt confused and scared. One of the family members described feeling to be the same as being raped, where they did it and nobody told them. The reporter even interprets that the “devil” in this whole study was Johns Hopkins University. One interviewee, Dr. Daniel Ford, states that, "Johns Hopkins needs to do a better job of communicating with the family and of recognizing it" but he also states that using Henrietta's genes was a standard practice at the time.
Instead of curing all of the participants, they continued to recruit people and continue to not inform them about the risks that they would be experiencing. The researchers did not pay any regards to the ethical rules that come along with such an experiment. They not only disregarded what the rights of the medical research, but they also disregarded the human rights of all of the people involved (Poythress, Epstein, & Stiles, 2011). Due to the fact that they were not giving the proper treatment to the participants, there were several deaths, as well as non-participants who became infected because they were in contact with a participant from the research. There were also individuals that had lost their lives from similar
Although Dorothea was not a psychologist or therapist of any kind she knew that improving conditions for the mentally ill would help them. In one of her testimonials to legislature she shared this “some may say these things cannot be remedied, these furious maniacs are not to be raised from these base conditions. I know they are…I could give many examples. One such is a young woman who was for years ‘a raging maniac’ chained in a cage and whipped to control her acts and words. She was helped by a husband and wife who agreed to take care of her in their home and slowly she recovered her senses”.
Michael Schiavo stated that his wife would not have wanted to go on in a persistent vegetative state, yet he waited a long time to make that claim; thus, he could be said to have ignored his wife's wishes and violated her autonomy for many years. Terri Schiavo's parents stated that even if she had had a living will, they would have ignored it. Under cross-examination during trial, her parents also stated that they would have amputated all four of her limbs and sought open-heart surgery if needed to keep her alive. Again, this sentiment represents a clear violation of the principle of