Henrietta Lacks is the first African American woman to have the first immortal cells. She was born August 1, 1920 and grew up in Virginia with her six siblings. Henrietta is most known for her cell line used by thousands of scientist across the world. Today people refer to her cells as HeLa cells, this is short for Henrietta Lacks. Scientist could not understand how her cells became immortal. Her cells made it possible to make thousands of vaccines for diseases. During Henrietta’s life she would create a cell line, adjust laws in the medical field, and create medical advances. First and for most, Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer at John Hopkins. This is where she met George Gey, the doctor who would go on to create her cell line. Her cell lines duplicated into new cells, which is abnormal for an average human cell. In the article “ The Immortal Life of …show more content…
In the Washington Post Blog Steve Hendrix asserts “ Those vaccines that could have spared Henrietta's Lacks were developed from her own cells”( Henrietta Cervical Cancer). Scientist believe that her cells are immortal because of the many diseases that she had. Hendrix explains “ Henrietta had human papilloma virus which is a sexually transmitted disease”. Henrietta also had other diseases that were inside of her. Scientist believe that since she had so many different disease that this is why her cells were immortal. George Gey felt that her cells were immune to these deadly diseases and this caused them to reproduce instead of dying off. Henrietta struggled most of her life with these diseases primarily because they were not vaccines at this time. In the article “ The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” Ahmad explains “ HeLa cells were vital for developing the pool vaccine and uncovering secrets of cancer.” If it were not for her cells, then we would not have nearly as many vaccines as we do