Henrietta Lacks Informed Consent Case Study

Part 1: What is Involved in Informed Consent?

Informed consent does not simply mean to have a patient sign a white piece of paper with a list of information prior to any type of medical treatment or procedures. Informed consent requires a lot of education and advocacy for the patient. Although informed consent is provided by a health care provider, it the nurse’s duty to act on the patient’s behalf by protecting patient’s right to autonomy (Cook, 2014). There are four key elements of informed consent for nurses (Judkins-Cohn, 2014). First, nurses must make sure the patient is in the right state of mind to comprehend the activities that will happen. Second, the patient should be educated about all the possible risks and benefits before agreeing

31). However, this permit only allowed the doctors to perform surgery for her cervical cancer, but there was never any request to harvest her cells for research and huge profits. By signing an informed consent form, patients are entitled to full disclosure and comprehension of all information. In Henrietta Lacks’ case, this was a breach of informed consent because her cervical cancer cells were used for other research purposes without her consent. Even her family members did not know what was happening at that time. Henrietta Lacks died in 1951. It wasn’t until 1973 that her family learned about the widely-used HeLa cells (Wagner, 2013). She deserved to be respected by keeping her informed and provide her the opportunity to choose what can be done and what can’t be done with the cells while she was

Many nurses are or will be involved in research practice either as a clinician delivering experimental procedures and/or medications or as part of a research team. As mentioned in Cook’s (2014) article, “nurses are ethically bound to ensure patients have access to thorough and understandable information, and environment free of power structures that would inhibit an autonomous decision, and the resources necessary to remedy any identified knowledge deficits” (Cook, p. 2014). However, there can be many challenges in acquiring proper informed consent. Misunderstanding of informed consent can be affected by language barriers, religious influences, false expectations, individual