Researched Argumentive Paper

Andrew Russell

Jack Hennes

11-19-12

ENGL 191

Informed Consent Argument 

         Ever since humans have discovered what causes diseases, there has been a struggle to find cures and prevention methods to combat these sometimes-deadly diseases.  This leads to new vaccines and treatments being created by doctors and scientists for the general population.  However, once a vaccine is created it first must be tested to make sure it doesn’t have negative or ever life threatening side effects.  Due to the enormous controversy about testing a potentially dangerous vaccine on a living human being, scientists and doctors needed to find alternative test subjects.  There were in some cases people that were willing to risk their own bodies by allowing scientists to test these vaccines on them, doctors couldn’t usually find enough people willing to risk their health.  This led to doctors in some hospitals to begin taking samples of people for testing without the patient’s knowing or consent.  This was very prevalent in inner city hospitals due to the large majority of patients being poor.  This was the case with Henrietta Lacks.  Her cancer cells were unknowingly taken from her and made into a multi-billion dollar program. 

           

This leads me into my main point.  I believe that all people have the right to know what is being taken from their bodies and they have the right to control how the material taken from their bodies are used.  I also feel that people have the right to receive royalties from any monetary gains from any part of themselves. 

           

Here’s a little background on informed consent.  Informed consent is used in the medical field as a connection by the doctors to the patient.  This can be done in many different ways but is usually obtained by a doctor in paper form since it is the legal norm.  According to ama-assn.org, one of these forms includes: the process of treatment, the risks and benefits of the treatment, the patient’s diagnosis, the risks and benefits of not getting treatment, and alternatives to this particular treatment.  Once a patient agrees to this form, they have the right to ask questions anytime about the treatment they are receiving and doctors have the permission to do everything the patient just agreed to.  If, however, the doctors do something to the patient that they didn’t agree too in the informed consent form, the patient has the legal right to sue the doctors and the hospital for malpractice. 

In cases such as Henrietta Lack’s where her rights were completely disregarded for her cancer cells.  Although because of this disregard for a patient’s rights, her cancer cells revolutionized cell research. The fact that this

even happened helped saved millions of lives, but it was still wrong to do.  Henrietta went into Hopkins to get treatment for her cervical cancer.  While she was sedated for the procedure, the doctors cut a sample of her tumor and sent it into the lab.  Her cancer cells from that tumor began to grow at an astonishing rate that no one had ever seen before; scientists were shocked.  This led to the creation of the HeLa cell line, which was used to create a vaccine for polio and a host of other major diseases.  The very fact that the polio isn’t an active disease anymore is because of the HeLa cell line.  This still doesn’t make what the doctors at Hopkins did to Henrietta Lacks morally or legally justifiable.  

           

Another case like Henrietta’s would be the other case that is talked about in the book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”.  This case involved a surveyor on the Alaskan Pipeline named John Moore a man who was just 32 years old.  He was diagnosed with hairy-cell leukemia, which is a very rare and extremely deadly form on cancer that affects the spleen.  This disease caused Moore’s kidneys to fill with malignant blood cells and also caused his gums to bleed and bruises to form all over his body.  He thought these symptoms were from his job.  When he found out that he was actually dying from leukemia, he flew down the UCLA to seek treatment from David Golde a cancer researcher.  Golde told Moore that the only thing that he could

do to treat him was remove his entire spleen.  Moore signed the consent form, which gave permission to the hospital to “dispose of any severed tissue or member by cremation”.  After the

surgery, Moore went on with his life but every couple month he had to fly back for follow up treatments.  Moore didn’t think much of the follow up trips until he was given another consent form which stated “I (do or do not) voluntarily grant the University of California all rights I, or my heirs, may have in any cell line or any other potential product which may be developed from the blood and/or bone marrow obtained from me” (Skloot 200).  When Moore read this, he signed “do not” thinking that Golde wasn’t telling him the whole story and went home.  After being harassed by Golde for a few weeks by letter and phone calls, Moore called his lawyer.  It turns out the Golde was using the follow up treatments to market Moore’s cell line into something like HeLa was which he called “Mo”.  This of course was not mentioned the first consent form he had signed which stated that any tissue taken from Moore would be cremated.  This was not the case and his cells from his spleen were marketed without his knowledge.

What Golde had found in the cells from Moore’s spleen was that they produced a rare protein that pharmaceutical companies could use to possible cure cancer.  They also apparently contained the virus HTLV, which is a distant

cousin to the HIV virus and scientists thought that it could be used in a vaccine to cure the HIV/AIDS virus completely.  Companies were willing to pay out the ears to get their hands on Moore’s cells and when Golde found this out he immediately tried to patent and sell the cells all without telling Moore. 

Another case like Moore’s would be Ted Slavin a man that had hemophilia and when he went into the doctors for treatment doctors found that his cells were creating something rare.  Only when the doctors found this they told Salvin and gave him the say in whether or not he would like to market his cells.  He said yes and his cells were used to create a vaccine for hepatitis B, which saved millions of lives.  This story is a good example of how proper informed consent procedure should carried out in a real world setting since it follows exactly how I believe it should go.  The doctors only have the right to do what the patient agrees to let the doctor do on them. 

This next case covers doctors going against a parent’s will for a procedure done on a child.  Vera Delgato had just given birth to a child and usually when a child is born they get circumcised.  Vera’s son was placed in the intensive care unit due to some medical condition that caused a life threatening infection.  According to Miami Herald, “Vera had specifically refused to sign a consent form for circumcision, telling doctors that she did not want Mario to have the procedure. No male in her family had had the operation in generations.”  A few days later Vera found out that while being treated for his infection, her son had had a circumcision.  Vera was furious saying “I didn’t want this for him. I’m opposed to circumcision. They didn’t have the right to do it” (Miami Herald).  She’s right, the doctors didn’t have the right to do this procedure on her son.  To make things worse the doctors just wrote it off as “an unfortunate mistake” (Miami Herald).  Through all this trouble some people think that all of this trouble can be avoid by just getting rid of the informed consent law entirely.

The main argument against having this informed consent law is that it could potentially prevent a life-threatening condition to go untreated due to ether the ignorance or faith in another “healing” method.  An example of this would be the story of Shannon and David Hickmen.  According to cristianpost.com editor Ray Downs, the couple “have been charged with manslaughter for relying solely on faith rather than seeking medical care when their premature child grew ill and died after being born at home.”  The couple decided to pray for God to heal the child rather than tae him in to a hospital for medical attention.  Both of them belong to the Followers of Christ church, which is a very controversial church sect.  Doctors said that if the couple would’ve taken their baby in to get medical attention, there would have been a “99.9 percent chance that David would have survived” (Downs).  Another story involving this topic would be fellow church members Timothy and Rebecca Wylan. The couple “were arrested and convicted of criminal misconduct and sentenced to 90 days in jail for not taking their infant daughter to a doctor for a growth that almost destroyed her left eye” (Downs).  This caused a huge debate on First Amendment rights in this community but what it really brought up was informed consent too.  Some argue that if there wasn’t a law preventing people to allow themselves or their child to receive medical treatment cases like this wouldn’t happen at all.

In conclusion, I have showed you several stories and cases about informed consent.  You’ve read about Henrietta Lack’s story and how her cells were taken from her without her knowledge.  You’ve read how this is affecting her family even today.  

You’ve read about the case of John Moore and how he became ill and had to have his spleen removed.  Then his doctor made a cell line out of his cells without telling Moore and pretty much made a lot of money.  You’ve also read about Ted Slavin and how when his doctor found out about his rare cell line he told Slavin.  Slavin then made his own cell line and helped create the first vaccine for hepatitis B that saved millions of lives.  You also heard about the case of Vera Delgato and how the doctors went against her blessings and circumcised her son.  Then the doctors basically wrote it off as “our bad” and didn’t really seem to care all that much for Vera’s feelings.  You then heard about some cases that argued against having an informed consent law.  The case of Shannon and David Hickmen where their newborn son was born two months premature and instead of taking him into the hospital, David started to pray.  Nine hours later the newborn died of complications and the parents were arrested and charged with manslaughter.  Finally, there’s the case of Timothy and Rebecca Wylan where they were arrested and sentenced to 90 days in jail for allowing a growth the form on their daughter’s eye which almost destroyed her eye. 

           

In this paper I’ve stated my stance on Informed Consent and how I believe that it is vital to society.  Not only does it protect the patients of America, it stops any unwanted procedure from being done on you.  However as you can tell there still are problems with doctors that purposely or mistakenly do not follow these laws.  Doctors have stolen tissue, cells, and body parts while people were under the knife.  I believe that all people have the right to know what is being taken from their bodies and they

have the right to control how the material taken from their bodies are used.  Also people have the right to receive royalties from any monetary gains from any part of themselves.  It doesn’t matter if a certain procedure would save anyone else’s or my life.  If the patient doesn’t agree on what’s going to happen to their own body they have the right to not allow it to happen.  As long as new diseases and old diseases keep killing people, there will be a need for medical research.  That means there will need to be testing for new procedures done on people, which is fine.  As long as they agree to participate on paper I won’t have a problem with it, and neither will the law.

           

Work Sited:

Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York City: Crown, 2010. Print.

Downs, Ray. "CP N.America." Christian Post. Christian Post, 28 Nov. 2012. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://www.christianpost.com/news/faith-healing-scandal-parents-prayed-instead-of-seeking-medical-care-as-child-slowly-died-56743/>.

Perconti, Levin. "Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog." Lack of Informed Consent ::. Illinois Informed Consent Blog, 7 Dec. 2010. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://medicalmalpractice.levinperconti.com/lack_of_informed_consent/>.

           

Informed Consent." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Nov. 2012. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informed_consent>.

"Health Sciences South Carolina." Health Sciences South Carolina. Health Sciences South Carolina, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://www.healthsciencessc.org/IT.asp>.