Informed Consent; Family's Role
Define informed consent:
"Consent by a patient to a surgical or medical procedure or participation in a clinical study after achieving an understanding of the relevant medical facts and the risks involved," (Houghton).
Evaluate the role informed consent played in Henrietta's situation.
Informed consent played a major issue in Henrietta's situation. Henrietta's case was surrounded by how the doctors at John Hopkins Hospital never went to her family or asked her for permission to use her tissues for cancer research. There was no consent form signed by anyone before the procedure. This goes back to bioethics and medical research and how what they did wasn't ethical and how their forms of getting their samples should've been taken more seriously by taking ethical procedures on being able to test her tissues. "But first--though no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting samples or asked if 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," (Skloot 33). She was never told, her family was never told, and it was just kept between the doctors at Hopkins, the true identity of Henrietta Lacks.
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Analyze the role Henrietta's family played in making medical decisions.
Henrietta's family's role in any medical decision was so small that once Henrietta checked into the hospital, it was like she was already going to be an experimental tool. Henrietta never told her family about her pain, she only told her friends that she had pain. Her family didn't know until after she was diagnosed with cervical carcinomas, that she wasn't going to last very long. The only decision that was made ultimately by the family was when Day came to the hospital and signed a consent form to allow the doctors to perform an autopsy. "They said they wanted to run tests that might help his children someday. Day's cousin said it wouldn't hurt, so eventually Day agreed and signed an autopsy permission form," (Skloot 89-90). Other than that, there was no other interaction with any role with Henrietta's body and tissues. They wanted to be more involved, but were never informed about anything that went on with Henrietta or her cells.
"Consent by a patient to a surgical or medical procedure or participation in a clinical study after achieving an understanding of the relevant medical facts and the risks involved," (Houghton).
Evaluate the role informed consent played in Henrietta's situation.
Informed consent played a major issue in Henrietta's situation. Henrietta's case was surrounded by how the doctors at John Hopkins Hospital never went to her family or asked her for permission to use her tissues for cancer research. There was no consent form signed by anyone before the procedure. This goes back to bioethics and medical research and how what they did wasn't ethical and how their forms of getting their samples should've been taken more seriously by taking ethical procedures on being able to test her tissues. "But first--though no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting samples or asked if 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," (Skloot 33). She was never told, her family was never told, and it was just kept between the doctors at Hopkins, the true identity of Henrietta Lacks.
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Analyze the role Henrietta's family played in making medical decisions.
Henrietta's family's role in any medical decision was so small that once Henrietta checked into the hospital, it was like she was already going to be an experimental tool. Henrietta never told her family about her pain, she only told her friends that she had pain. Her family didn't know until after she was diagnosed with cervical carcinomas, that she wasn't going to last very long. The only decision that was made ultimately by the family was when Day came to the hospital and signed a consent form to allow the doctors to perform an autopsy. "They said they wanted to run tests that might help his children someday. Day's cousin said it wouldn't hurt, so eventually Day agreed and signed an autopsy permission form," (Skloot 89-90). Other than that, there was no other interaction with any role with Henrietta's body and tissues. They wanted to be more involved, but were never informed about anything that went on with Henrietta or her cells.