biobanks alone, and this number is estimated to be growing by at least 20 million a year. At least 300 million human samples are stored in U.S. More than $1 billion has been spent on establishing biobanks worldwide and the sector’s commercial value is predicted to grow to more than $2.25 billion by 2015. Such efforts, however, need to be carefully planned and evaluated.
#The immortal life of henrietta lacks ethical issues essay tv
Still, ethicists should view the book and a pending major TV film translation as opportunities to highlight through media outreach, consultation exercises and public forums a broader range of bioethical concerns that would otherwise be under-emphasized in news coverage. The relatively narrow focus on informed consent in the media discussion generated by Skloot’s book may limit the ability of ethicists and advocates to elevate attention to donor control, compensation, patenting, privacy, and other ethical issues.
The book has been praised as an opportunity to elevate media discussion of bioethics, but such claims should be re-considered. The least prominent themes were privacy, public education, and advocacy. Ethical themes that comprised a second tier of prominence included those of scientific progress, control/access, and accountability/oversight. Other prominent themes and frames of reference focused on the welfare of the vulnerable (18.4 percent major emphasis 36.0 percent minor emphasis), and donor compensation (19.2 percent major 52.8 percent minor). The informed consent theme dominated media discussion, with almost 39.2 percent of articles/transcripts featuring the theme as a major focus and 44.8 percent emphasizing the theme as a minor focus. These were informed consent, welfare of the vulnerable, compensation, scientific progress, control/access, accountability/oversight, privacy, public education, and advocacy. We scored each article for the emphasis and appearance of 9 ethics-related themes. We conducted a content analysis of a population of relevant English-language articles and transcripts (n = 125) produced by news organizations and publications in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain/Ireland, and Australia/New Zealand. To assess the impact of the book on discussion within the media and popular culture more generally, we systematically analyzed the ethics-related themes emphasized in reviews and articles about the book, and in interviews and profiles of Skloot.
As an opportunity to engage broader audiences on these concerns, bioethicists have welcomed the commercial success of Rebecca Skloot’s 2010 bestselling book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The global expansion of biobanks has led to a range of bioethical concerns related to consent, privacy, control, ownership, and disclosure.
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