Henrietta Lacks Impact On Society

In the 1950s the first ‘immortal’ human cells were grown from a cancerous tissue sample taken from Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman, without her knowledge or consent. She had died shortly after, at the unfortunately early age of 31, of a severe case of cervical cancer. Henrietta had a list of ailments that included neurosyphilis, gonorrhea, and HPV the leading cause of her cervical cancer and, ultimately, her death. The hospital that had diagnosed her cancer, Johns Hopkins, had supposedly been one of the best hospitals in the country, but it participated in discriminatory and amoral research practices when treating African Americans. Not only taking taking Henrietta’s cells without her consent, but injecting them and other cancer cells into patients without their knowledge.

Her cells have been used to cure countless diseases, test human immunity, understand the effect of certain drugs and radiation on people, test weapons, and so on. Her family knew of her death, but were unaware that her cells were still alive years after her death, and they have never compensated for the profits of the million dollar industry the cells have generated. They spent their childhoods verbally, sexually, and physically abused and their adult lives in and out of prison or plagued by inherited bad health. Her children couldn’t even afford the health insurance to care for diseases their mother’s cells have helped to cure. Until this book was published, no one was aware of who this woman was despite her tremendous, (yet unintended) contribution to