The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
The HeLa cell line was known to be the oldest successful cell line which has been extensively used in scientific inquiry. It became an invaluable tool in the advancement on of medical and clinical researches encompassing the development of vaccines, understanding the physiology of viruses and other infectious agents, devising developing in vitro fertilization techniques, and even in the use of genomic sequencing.
Remarkable as the number of medical frontiers and research breakthroughs that were pushed and made possible by the famous immortal cells—HeLa, it has also been a great “source of anxiety, confusion and frustration for the family of the woman, Henrietta Lacks, from whom the cells were taken without consent more than 60 years ago”
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The book lays bare the painful history, what can be called as disquieting in present ethical views, on how tissue samples were obtained without consent and how the family was kept in the dark about HeLa cells for many years since Lacks’ death in 1951, which evoked questions and issues on privacy and ethics in the practice of medical and scientific research. Even so, during the that time it was not considered unethical to obtain living tissue samples from a patient without consent or to provide unauthorized medical …show more content…
Later their medical records were released to the press and published without consent,” Skloot wrote.
Initially, the Lacks family had no idea that Henrietta’s cells were used in groundbreaking accomplishments. Adding salt to the wound, the family was never, even poorly, compensated from a multibillion dollar profit earned by cell line companies who made use of Gey’s HeLa cells. Moreover, even the family of the “most important woman” considered by the research community did not even have the chance to access treatments that were developed using HeLa cells. The Lacks’ could simply not afford them.
By the year 2013, the research community yet again wounded the Lacks’ family when German scientists published the data of the successfully sequenced HeLa’s genome without their knowledge. Never had anyone expected it to become a bioethical lightning rod which sparked controversy and reopened old wounds. Jeri Lacks-Whye, Lacks’ granddaughter said during a press
Henrietta Lacks: Her Cells In The 1950's And Today
734 Words | 3 PagesHeLa has helped our world in many ways, as many as 70,000 medical studies and even more till this day. Her cells have been very needful in the development of drugs for herpes leukemia influenza (flu) and Parkinson’s disease. They have been used in many things like lactose digestion and mosquito mating. Before HeLa cells scientists spent more time keeping cells alive than actual research, an endless supply of HeLa freed up time for that(Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
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672 Words | 3 PagesThe Fluidity of Henrietta Lacks. Gender Norms & Racial Bias in the study of the Modern “Henrietta Lacks” Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman whose cancer cells were the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research. An immortalized cell line will reproduce indefinitely under specific conditions, and the HeLa cell line continues to be a source of invaluable medical data to present day. Lacks was the unwitting source of these cells from a tumor biopsied during treatment for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. in 1951. The cells were then cultured by George Otto Gey who created the cell line known as HeLa, which is still
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585 Words | 3 PagesWithin the novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks written by Rebecca Skloot, Lacks and her family face many adversities. One adversity major mistreatment of Henrietta is while she's in the care of Dr. Gey. During her struggles Dr. Gey was removing tissue samples without informing Lacks his full intentions which was very wrong, but the arrival of Henrietta's cells proved to be vital in the advancement of the Science and medical fields. A sudden boom of new scientific research, and medical breakthroughs were now within in reach. One example of a major solution solved by HeLa cells was the expense of culturing cells, before Scientist would have to kill monkeys to obtain cells in order to run neutralization tests, this proved to be costly and
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613 Words | 3 PagesPeople did not know the truth about HeLa because Hopkins hospital hid the fact that they took living samples of Henrietta’s cells without consent. “-Add quote-“they did it to continue and advance in their research. From HeLa the scientific world was booming with questions. “–Add quote-“they asked questions such as where was HeLa from and who’s the patient was with the cells. Not to mention Hopkins did not release Henrietta name because they did not want people to find out who she really was.
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1514 Words | 7 PagesHutchins, Grover M.; Lucey, Brendan P.; Nelson-Rees, Walter A. “Henrietta Lacks, HeLa Cells, and Cell Culture Contamination” 1 September, 2009 https://meridian.allenpress.com/aplm/article/133/9/1463/460899/Henrietta-Lacks-HeLa-Cells-and-Cell-Culture This source gives interesting information about HeLa cells, and how they contaminated nearly every cell line in the ATCC (American Type Culture Control). The ATCC keeps original samples in a sterile environment, and for many years, HeLa cells had been contaminating their samples without anyone
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556 Words | 3 PagesThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a book that includes her biography, then her childhood to her tragic death; the story of her family over various decades; Skloot’s research and her relationship with the Lacks family, especially Deborah; and the story of the HeLa cells. Henrietta Lacks was known by scientists as HeLa was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951, and then became one of the most important tools in medicine. They were necessary for the development of the polio vaccine, cloning, and much more scientific developments. A doctor at Johns Hopkins took a piece of her tumor without her consent and then sent it down to scientists who been trying to grow tissues in culture for decades. Henrietta's
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956 Words | 4 PagesOne of the ironies explored in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is the dichotomy between the vast value of the HeLa cell line—which has been used in the development of the polio vaccine, nuclear bomb testing, the
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1263 Words | 6 PagesDevon Moore Professor Dunbar English 111 19 September 2017 Title Cells that are known as HeLa are a line of immortal human cells that were developed from an African American woman in the 1950’s. They continue to be very well-known to the world of science today as they are still used. The HeLa cells are known for contributing to a lot of medical advancements. Scientists have now converted these cells into drugs to help create many different treatments for various cancers and diseases.
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1631 Words | 7 PagesThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, her family, and researchers who have exploited her cell line under the name of advance in medical research. In 1951, when Henrietta Lacks was treated for cervical cancer at John’s Hopkin hospital, a physician collected her cervical cancer cells and handed to a researcher without proper process of informed consent. In a research lab, her cancer cells were harvested and disseminated to other labs. Henrietta’s cancer cells become the first immortal human cell line and became widely used for scientific research. When her cell lines were sold by billions throughout the entire country and HeLa cells became popular research tools in the scientific community,
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988 Words | 4 PagesResearchers believed that the person behind the cell line HeLa, was Helen Lane. After the death of George Gey, it was later discovered that the real name behind the cells was in fact Henrietta Lacks. As the discovery of the name Henrietta Lacks, researchers by the name of Susan Hsu and Victor McKsick began contacting the Lacks family under the misconception of they wanted to test them to be sure they did not have the cancer their mother had. Throughout the further research of Deborah, Henrietta’s daughter, they began requesting more blood for extended research that she was unaware of. They wanted more blood for a researcher in California who requisitioned samples of blood for his research on HeLa.
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911 Words | 4 PagesThe purpose was to produce the first cells to live outside of the human body. Unlike the cells of others, Henrietta’s cells actually managed to survive outside of the human body, and are still living to this day. Henrietta was not given credit, or even notified or this. Henrietta Lack died without even knowing the impact her cells would have on the scientific community or the world. The initials HeLa were given to the cells, not acknowledging that they were from Henrietta at all.
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1437 Words | 6 PagesIntroduction The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was an intriguing book. It not only discussed scientific thought but also other subjects as well. The book shows both the scientists point of view and the family’s point of view. In the scientists point of view the families and Henrietta’s consent was not needed.
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462 Words | 2 PagesThe origination of HeLa cells, used in biomedical research for a potential cure for cancer, had made many ground breaking discoveries in science; all thanks to one woman, Mrs. Henrietta Lacks. The history of Mrs. Lacks’s contribution to these studies raised many ethical issues concerning healthcare practice. In the short film, The Way of All Flesh, we learn how these cells were revealed by direct violation of ethical principles. During the 1950s, matters regarding informed consent practices were in their beginning stages of implementation.
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