Henrietta Lacks’ Impact on Medical Research Then and Now
What happens to the sample just taken out of your body that is now being sent to pathology? Is it just tested for one disease and tossed away in biomedical waste, or is it tested and taken somewhere else to be studied for further research? Do we get a say in how we want our tissues used? Henrietta Lacks is just one answer to these questions on why we now have stricter consent forms for various medical procedures. Through her cells we see the impact it created in medical research and understand ethical issues that arose from this experience. I, as many others in the world, strive for an answer on how to stop cancer from occurring and curing it once and for all. 1951 in Baltimore, Henrietta Lacks was a beautiful 30-year-old mother of five children who went to the gynecologist because of spotting between monthly cycles. On examination a lesion was found on her cervix that was biopsied for pathology and found to be epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix, Stage I cancer. This was an interesting case because when Henrietta’s cancer cells were tested they weren’t like other cancer cells; they were aggressive and grew very rapidly. Her tissue was then kept for
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Atlanta repaid the Lacks family by giving each child an award for their mother’s contributions to the medical field through the discovery of the Polio vaccine, and the many advances it has on cancer research, and the honor that in Atlanta on October 11th it is referred to as Henrietta Lacks day. I also believe a fair remuneration for the family would be free health insurance for each of Henrietta’s children and her husband. This is fair because they are fully insured medically for anything that could happen to her children and the fact that there could still have research be pursued legally from now
Just about everyone was profiting from HeLa cells except her own family. Throughout the book we can follow the interesting stories of Henrietta’s children and the scientist who worked with HeLa cells. Many ethical questions were raised and we can engage in the argument that the author poses. Is consent from patients’ necessary to proceed with testing on patients who are unaware of the procedures being done on them?
Lacks, was a woman who had her life taken by cancer. However doctors and scientists began to notice that her cells continuously produce (to this day in fact). Henrietta’s family was not informed about her “immortal cells” until 20 years after her death. To all readers disappointment, her family didn’t even get a portion, or even a small percent of the money earned from using her cell line to make various medical advances. These include the polio vaccine, the cancer drug tamoxifen, chemotherapy, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and treatments for influenza, leukemia, and Parkinson’s disease (from article).
Would people in 1951 feel any different if they knew black people could produce lifesaving cures with technology? Henrietta Lacks was a black woman that got cervical cancer and went to Hopkins hospital because it was the closest segregated hospital around. While Henrietta was as Hopkins, they were doing tests and during that process, Dr. Gey took Henrietta’s cells without her consent. Henrietta was diagnosed with Cervical cancer doctors took samples without her consent. She had five kids and died at Hopkins hospital on October 4, 1951 being only 31 years old.
Her cell line is most commonly known as HeLa: He from the first two letters of Henrietta and La from the first two letters of Lacks. Despite this seeming positive outcome, Henrietta, specifically her family were not informed until 20 years after Henrietta's fatal cancer experience. Raising the inquiries: Was this ethical? Should the Lacks family be compensated for their mistreatment? Was the unconsented research on Henrietta lacks lawful?
She resided in Clover until she was twenty-two years old, when she moved to Turner Station, Maryland with her husband David Lacks and her first two children David Jr. and Elsie. For the duration of Henrietta’s life, she and her family belonged to a lower middle class of working black Americans. In 1951 when Henrietta felt a lump in her lower abdomen she sought out the medical care of the charity hospital, Johns Hopkins. In a pre-civil rights movement America, where segregation and demeaning of black Americans was prevalent in society, the colored ward of Hopkins was both the only place that would treat her and the only treatment she could
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Doctors took her cells without consent and launched a multi-million dollar industry. Her name was Henrietta Lacks, a poor wife, mother, and farmer. Lack cells opened the door for many new advances in medicine. These advances include: the polio vaccine and nuclear testing. These cells have helped us to understand cancer, HIV/AIDS, and cells in general.
Deborah was struggling with her family, Zakariyya was in jail, and the discovery of their mother cells had been a cultural shock. It was by word of mouth that the Lacks family heard about Henrietta’s cells being immortal. It was 1973 and Bobbette was having a conversation with her friend’s brother in law. What happened was that he eventually told her that he worked at the National Cancer Institute and that he has been working with a cell from a woman named Henrietta lacks that died of cervical cancer at Hopkins in the fifties. After hearing about this new discovery, Bobbette relayed the message to her family.
Immortal cells from a woman who never even knew they’d been stolen from her. Henrietta Lacks would change the medical field without even knowing it. Henrietta had a family, a love life, and trials, before her unfortunate death. Henrietta was born on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke Virginia. She was born on the floor of a house that was known as the “The Home-House.”
When we die, we never know what goes on in the world after that, because we are dead. We know that our family mourns our last, but we really don’t know anything else. Well, Henrietta Lacks was one of those people and I feel as if she should have known before she died what was going to go on after her death. Who is Henrietta Lacks?
Before I start my discussion, I would like to thank Henrietta Lacks for her cells even though they were taken without her consent and also thank the Lacks’ family for their patience in dealing with this issue of not being told about the use of the Henrietta’s cells. Neither Henrietta nor her family got recognition for them. This story tells us how far we have come in this day and age in terms of privacy information and what people can and cannot do because of HIPPA. It was common practice to use people’s information and cells without their consent.
Henrietta Lacks was a black tobacco farmer from the south who, in 1950, at the age of 30, she was diagnosed with aggressive cervical cancer. Lacks went to John’s Hopkins medical center for treatment for her cancer. In April of 1951, she underwent surgery to remove the larger tumor on her cervix. Henrietta Lacks, died three days following the surgery. Even though Henrietta Lacks died, her cells from the tumor have lived on and have made a major impact on the biomedical community.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of Henrietta, an African-American woman whose cells were used to create the first immortal human cell line. Told through the eyes of her daughter, Deborah Lacks, aided by journalist Rebecca Skloot. Deborah wanted to learn about her mother, and to understand how the unauthorized harvesting of Lacks cancerous cells in 1951 led to unprecedented medical breakthroughs, changing countless lives and the face of medicine forever. It is a story of medical arrogance and triumph, race, poverty and deep friendship between the unlikeliest people. There had been many books published about Henrietta’s cells, but nothing about Henrietta’s personality, experiences, feeling, life style etc.
Participation Portfolio 1 Asst 3: Henrietta Lacks Discussion Questions Please answers each of the following questions, and be prepared to discuss in class 1. Please outline the history of Henrietta Lacks 's tissue cells. Who did what with the cells, when, where and for what purpose? Who benefited, scientifically, medically, and monetarily?
Racism in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Imagine your mother, sister, wife, or cousin was diagnosed with cervical cancer and you believed the doctors were doing everything in their power to help her. Only later you discovered her cells were used for research without consent and she was not properly informed of the risks of her treatment due to her race. This story happened and is told by Rebecca Skloot in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Skloot use of narrative and her writing style enhances the understanding of the story. Henrietta Lacks was a young black woman who was diagnosed with cervical cancer at John Hopkins Hospital.
The 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.