ipl-logo

Was The Unconsented Research On Henrietta Lacks Lawful?

1397 Words6 Pages

Polio vaccine, in vitro fertilization, cloning, cancer improvement, gene mapping, HPV and HIV vaccines are only few of the abundant discoveries, saved lives, and scientific advancements, and ethical improvements owed to Henrietta Lacks, aka. “the modern mother of medicine" and her immortal cells. Henrietta lacks a African American woman, born in 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia, by the age of 20 was married with two children and they later mover to for work where Henrietta and her husband had three more children. In 1951 Henrietta began to experience excruciating pain and abnormal bleeding in her uterus later confirmed as cervical cancer at John Hopkins. During her consented autopsy the doctors operating on Henrietta took a piece of her biopsy thus …show more content…

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? Who make the decisions concerning HeLa cells? Lastly and arguably the most important, How does this affect future medical procedure and discoveries concerning human …show more content…

Although she relocated in her twenties to the north she still experienced racial disparity specifically through her medical experience. John Hopkins was a hospital with a unique mission, in retrospect to the time in which it was founded, this mission is simply put by a scholarly article on the subject, “to provide care to the sick and indigent ‘without regard to sex, age, or color’”. With the socio economic status and race of Henrietta this hospital was one of the least segregated and most willing to provide car for Henrietta and people like her. Despite this seemingly positive improvement in her story, what went on in the hospital and specifically what took place with the story of Henrietta lacks was not right or ethical. Henrietta and many others were in fact segregated into color wards, although the segregation took place she received the standard care of that time. According to Rebecca Skloot, an award winning writer most famous for her novel on Henrietta Lacks “the immortal life of Henrietta lacks”, Henrietta received “top of the line’ treatment. Although given standard treatment by no means was it enjoyable, Henrietta went through many days of terrible pain, due to the severity and nature of the procedure they performed on her, her cervix were filled with in order to try and shrink the size of the tumor. Evidently this procedure

Show More
Related

  • The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

    1695 Words  | 7 Pages

    In her work, Skloot reveals Henrietta Lacks to be an African-American woman whose cervical cells were biopsied without her consent. These cells, known as HeLa (a combination of Lacks first and last name), have since been shared among various scientists and researchers and been the framework for ground-breaking research. Unlike other works on Henrietta Lacks, Skloot set out to tell

    Read More

  • Henrietta Lacks Essay

    672 Words  | 3 Pages

    The 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

    Read More

  • Henrietta Lacks Book Report

    1597 Words  | 7 Pages

    When Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer in 1951, she left her five children motherless and alone. This includes one of her two daughters, Deborah Lacks. Throughout her life, Deborah never was able to meet her mother and knew of her only as an idea- a woman who died soon after her birth. After Henrietta’s death, she faded into old news and was hardly ever talked about. Deborah only ever wanted to learn more about her mother, going as far as harassing her brother, Lawrence, until he broke down into tears.

    Read More

  • The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

    962 Words  | 4 Pages

    On the topic of respect, there was also a lack of respect related to her family. The Lacks family were not all on board for the usage of HeLa cells. Infact, not until about 20 years later did the scientist have the audacity to mention it to them. When Henrietta’s children were informed that her mother's cells are still living today, they were very rudely informed. The scientists wanted more information about Henrietta, so they went to her children to collect more blood samples.

    Read More

  • The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

    556 Words  | 3 Pages

    The 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

    Read More

  • The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Analysis

    1141 Words  | 5 Pages

    So she knew she could avoid the doctor know longer, so her husband drove her to the only major hospital that served African-Americans. The hospital was known as John Hopkins and it was in East Baltimore. At the hospital, she had gone to see a gynecologist named Howard Jones, who studied her long list of untreated diseases. She had many untreated medical conditions, but they were never treated with proper medical treatment. During the time at the hospital, she stated that “walking into Hopkins was like entering a foreign country where she didn’t speak the language.”

    Read More

  • Review Of Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

    712 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the “Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, Rebecca Skloot discusses two main issues of the medical research in the 20th century America, which are pertinent to people all around the modern world: class difference, especially racism and ethics of medical research, especially non-observance of consent. Racism is frequently addressed in this reading. Between Henrietta’s house and John Hopkins hospital, there were many reputable medical centers but she was not allowed to visit any of these because they were set up for the treatment of whites. Even in John Hopkins, there was a separate, inferior ward for colored patients.

    Read More

  • The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

    1099 Words  | 5 Pages

    In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the main character Henrietta Lacks died from cervical cancer in 1951. Fortunately a few months before she died, her doctor took a little sample of her cancerous cells. This is important because this was the first and most important types of human cells ever to live and produce endlessly. She is famous because her cells helped out scientists all over to make some of the most valuable discoveries in up to date medical history. The bad news about this was her cells were taken without any of her consent.

    Read More

  • Henrietta Lacks Themes

    211 Words  | 1 Pages

    Henrietta Lacks’s daughter Deborah once stated “If our mother cells done so much for medicine, how come her family can’t afford to see no doctors?” (Skloot 9). The lack of ethics also points to another theme of Henrietta’s story, discoveries are more than the discovery itself, there are always people behind them. Deborah’s words also emphasize the human side

    Read More

  • What Is The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Sloot?

    987 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Sloot Rebecca Skloot wanted to educate the public, in a positive and negative way, about groundbreaking scientific research. The historic study conducted upon Henrietta Lacks, was any extreme case of a de-humanization experiment conducted by John Hopkins to achieve personal gratification to complete his case work. Ultimately resulting in Henrietta’s death due to Hopkins personal goal of achieving scientific grandeur, her personal death and contribution towards the scientific world ultimately rewarded humanity with an immortal impact upon life’s health discoveries. Although this study may have been extremely impactful towards humanity itself, it goes unnoticed in a major majority of the worlds

    Read More

  • What Is The Legacy Of The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

    586 Words  | 3 Pages

    Deborah “Dale” Lacks is the fourth child of Henrietta and David “Day” Lacks (Skloot, 2010, p. 14). Deborah Lacks was able to acquire additional information about her mother with the support of the author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot, who reached out and identified her part of the legacy. Deborah became involved with the story of HeLa cells about twenty years later after her mother died for the reason that no one declared that parts of her were still active in existence. Though, she involuntarily became involved once her mother past away (Skloot, 2010). She agreed to meet Skloot on the ninth of July in 2000 to discuss Henrietta (Skloot, 2010, p. 233).

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Henrietta Lacks

    239 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Henrietta Lacks Thesis

    1020 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Henrietta Lacks Discussion Questions

    700 Words  | 3 Pages

    30year old Henrietta Lacks underwent radiation treatment for cervical cancer at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore In 1951. During her treatment, George Gey the surgeon who performed the procedure removed pieces of her cervix without her knowledge and sent them to a lab.  Her cells were used to develop the polio vaccine, used in the first space missions to see what would happen to human cells in zero gravity. Henrietta’s cells were the first human cells ever cloned, some of the first genes ever mapped. They have been used to create some of our most important cancer

    Read More

  • Racism In The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

    743 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about Was The Unconsented Research On Henrietta Lacks Lawful?

Open Document