ipl-logo

Henrietta Lacks Impact On Modern Medicine

738 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The importance of health science

A poor black woman named Henrietta Lacks completely transformed the medical field. At the age of 30 she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Although this may have been a tragic time in her life, her death resulted in one of the biggest discoveries in medicine today. Henrietta made a huge impact on modern medicine through the use of her HeLa cells. Henrietta was born on August 18, 1920. She grew up without her mother and father. After Henrietta’s mother, who died giving birth to her tenth child, her father, who used a cane to get around didn’t have the patience to take care of ten kids. He separated the kids amongst family members because no one could take all ten kids. Henrietta went to live with her grandfather Tommy Lacks. She grew up …show more content…

Then he sent it down the hall to scientist who had been trying to grow tissue for years and years” (Zielinski, 2010, p.2). Back then it was common for doctors to take samples from their patients (Barone, 2014, p.1). Southam filled a syringe with HeLa cells and injected them into cancer patients. He told them he was checking their immune system. Within hours their forearms grew red and swollen. He wanted to test it on people without cancer, so he put an ad in the newspaper for twenty-five volunteers. He ended up getting one hundred and fifty volunteers (Skloot, 2010, p.128). Southam also injected healthy prisoners with the HeLa cells. Tumors grew on the prisoners arms just like the cancer patients, but the prisoners fought off the cancer completely (Skloot, 2010, p.129). The cells John Hopkins took from Henrietta’s tumor helped launch a multibillion-dollar industry, yet her family had no money (Monsen, 2011, p.2). “In the past sixty-three years several scientists have won Nobel prizes for research on HeLa Cells.” Henrietta’s genome wasn’t the first to be published. Unlike Henrietta, the other patients gave consent for the doctors to take samples (Barone, 2014,

Show More
Related

Henrietta Lacks Research Paper Outline

917 Words | 4 Pages

On Henrietta’s deathbed Gey tells her that her cells will make her immortal. The tuskegee institute began giving cells for polio research but soon after began sending cells to any scientist who wanted them The hela cells were used to create many scientific breakthroughs and understanding of cells such as the use of freezing cells for delivery and the standardization of cell culturing Skloot and Deborah 1990 1999 Skloot reaches out to Roland Pattillo after coming across a collection of scientific papers compiled by Pattillo about Henrietta, after she decides she wants to write about

Read More

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

611 Words | 3 Pages

When removed during her biopsy and then cultured without her permission, her cells began to reproduce rapidly and require more and more culture medium to consume as they grew. They thrived in the lab and they were the first human cells ever in history to do so. Meanwhile, Henrietta, 31, African-American, and a mother of five, continued enduring painful and damaging radiation treatment in the hospital’s “colored only” ward. After Henrietta’s death, her cells, named HeLa after the first two letters of both her names, went on to become a celebrity of virology, benefiting more people than will ever be truly realized. Scientists have grown about 50 million metric tons of her cells, helped sustain and build thousands of careers, and tens of thousands of scientific

Read More

Henrietta Lacks Health In The 1800s

286 Words | 2 Pages

Lacks health was on the decline and on August 8, 1951, she was admitted to John Hopkins. Within 2 months, the cancer tumors consumed her body and she died. Upon her death, more samples were removed from her body. These samples were freely shipped to other researchers and scientist around the world so that they could be applied to experiments ranging from cancer treatment to a cure for infectious diseases. As research throughout the world continued using the HeLa cells, Lacks identity as the woman behind them was little known.

Read More

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

1809 Words | 8 Pages

The HeLa cells not only survived, they grew intensely and kept right on growing as much as their given space would allow. It seemed like the cells would never stop growing, thus came the label of the immortal cells (Skloot, 2010). HeLa cells became a very important part of scientific research, and Henrietta’s name became well-known among Gey’s colleagues. On November 2, 1953, the real name behind the HeLa cells was leaked by the press, but they got it wrong, Henrietta Lakes was reported as the source of the cells in the Minneapolis Star. Gey and Dr. TeLinde, the cervical cancer specialist at John Hopkins, decided to allow their story about Henrietta to be told in a more accurate account, but they wanted to withhold her name.

Read More

Henrietta Lacks Research Papers

613 Words | 3 Pages

People 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.

Read More

Henrietta Lacks Pros And Cons

1178 Words | 5 Pages

The polio vaccine, the revolutionary steps regarding cancer research, and even obtaining the ability to put a man on the moon, were some of the greatest achievements of the 20th century. All these achievements were thanks to HeLa cells. Cancerous cells from Helen Lane. Or so that is all we knew of the origins of the cells before the early 70’s. The massive debate and controversy over Henrietta Lacks cells, their ownership, and their rights added more conflict and more worries to the mountain of distress and tensions during the Cold War.

Read More

Why Is Henrietta Lacks Important

1033 Words | 5 Pages

But eventually, through trial and error they discovered more efficient and cost effective ways to transport these cells. After the epidemic of shipping HeLa cells everywhere there was a factory created specifically for growing the

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

Henrietta Lacks Research Papers

1334 Words | 6 Pages

And them doctors said if I gave them my old lady, they could use her to study that cancer and maybe help my children, my grandchildren” (Skloot 164-165). However Day did not know that they were doing this and the scientists did not care. An autopsy does not involve taking small bits from each of her organs and trying to grow her cells for personal use. Wilbur cut samples from her “bladder, bowel, uterus, kidney, vagina, ovary, appendix, liver, heart, and lungs” (Skloot 90). Gey grew Henrietta’s cells and called them HeLa cells; the immortal cells of the 50s.

Read More

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

983 Words | 4 Pages

Hela cells. Not necessarily the cells themselves has changed anything, but the person they were taken from; Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman whom was born August 1, 1920. Before passing on October 4, 1951, Henrietta approached Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, trying to find out what was bringing her awful abnormal pains and abdominal bleeding: soon after she was diagnosed with Cervical Cancer and treated with radium and x-ray therapy. During one particular visit tissue samples were taken from Henrietta while being ‘treated’ for her cancer and studied. Rebecca Skloot wrote, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, bringing to light the ‘complex social issues’ and ‘ethical dilemmas’ that entwined with HeLa cells and medical research.

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

How Did Henrietta Lacks Use Ethics In The Medical Field

788 Words | 4 Pages

Doctors knew best, and most patients didn't question that” (Skloot 63). Granted, the main distributors of the HeLa cells tried with all of their power to conceal the real identity of the cell’s owner; however their prevention to do so also prevented the Lacks family from knowing that Henrietta’s cells were still alive (Skloot

Read More

Henrietta Lacks Without Her Consent Essay

663 Words | 3 Pages

Despite the wrongdoings Henrietta Lacks was put through her cells did a lot to help advance science. Her cells helped develop different types of vaccines, which such as her daughter faced. A lot of good and bad came out of Henrietta’s

Read More

Henrietta Lacks Thesis

1020 Words | 5 Pages

In 1951, at the age of 31 Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Henrietta was under treatment at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where cells from her malignant tumor were removed. Neither Henrietta nor any of her family members knew about the tissue sample and nor did the Hopkins ever informed them of the situation. Unfortunately after Henrietta’s radiation treatment, her condition continued to worsen and soon she lost her battle to cancer on octomber 4th 1951. Henriettas cells left the Hopkins what they discovered to be known to be the first immortal human cell line.

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 Henrietta Lacks Impact On Modern Medicine

Open Document