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Henrietta Lacks Research Papers

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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. Today, they are used to grow viruses and testing antitumor medicines. Compensation and reparations are due to Henrietta Lacks and her family for the amazing advancements her cells made and continue to make, that were taken without her consent. Born on August 1, 1920, Henrietta Lacks was a poor, black tobacco farmer from Roanoke, Virginia. Originally Loretta …show more content…

John Hopkins was one of the best hospitals, but they didn’t go there by preference, this was one of the best hospitals that accepted black people. In the era of Jim Crow, when black people showed up at white-only hospitals, the staff sent them away, even if it meant they might die in the parking …show more content…

The problem was that cells often die quickly outside of the body. As you might guess, he was thrilled when he received a call offering him some cells from every woman patient with cervical cancer in exchange for trying to grow some cells. TeLinde began taking samples from every woman that walked into Hopkins with cervical cancer, including Henrietta’s. Henrietta’s tumor was invasive, and Hopkins treated all invasive carcinomas with radium; a white radioactive metal that glows blue. Radium destroys any cell it encounters, and patients who’d taken it in the past began dying. Radium causes mutations that can turn into cancer and if used in high doses, it can burn skin off. Nonetheless, it also helped kill cancer cells. In the 1940’s, several studies showed that radium was safer and more effective than surgery for treating invasive cervical cancer. The doctor who discovered radium and supervised Henrietta’s radium treatment, would later die from cancer; possibly due to his regular exposure to

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1053 Words | 5 Pages

As shown in the award-winning book by author Rebecca Skloot: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a mother by the name of Henrietta’s cells caused scientific commotion, without her or her family even knowing it. Although the HeLa cell brought many incredible scientific discoveries, Henrietta and her family were manipulated while companies made profits. Although

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1033 Words | 5 Pages

Henrietta Lacks Honor Essay “The reason Henrietta's cells were so precious was because they allowed scientists to perform experiments that would have been impossible with a living human. They cut HeLa cells apart and exposed them to endless toxins, radiation, and infection. They bombarded them with drugs, hoping to find one that would kill malignant cells without destroying normal ones.” (58)”Throughout the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” there are many examples of how the HeLa cell of Henrietta Lacks provided cellular information and examples that helped mold many cellular discoveries and experiments.

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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

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1500 Words | 6 Pages

Sonali Sagar Block: 2B May 12th 2015 The Degradation of Morals and Ethics In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks the author Rebecca Skloot tells us about a non-fiction story of an African American women who is diagnosed with cervical cancer and how the medical community exploited her for use of her “immortal” cells. From then onwards the cells have been used for widespread medical advancement and research. There is no denying the good that has come from this as even the polio vaccine was developed from these HeLa cells. Moreover, it has also been aiding with finding a cure for cancer as well as assisting with further research on AIDS.

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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

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870 Words | 4 Pages

Have you ever heard of Henrietta Lacks, Phineas Gage, or Douglas Mawson? All of these people underwent major struggles for the sake of science, but one stands out more than the rest. Henrietta Lacks was a woman who died at age 31 due to cervical cancer; her cells helped form a multi-million dollar industry (“Immortal Cells, Enduring Issues”). Phineas Gage was a railroad worker who had once shoved a iron rod into a blasting hole, which caused the rod to shoot into his skull. Gage faced side effects from this that led scientists to uncover details on the frontal lobe of the brain, and brain disorders (“The Man with the Hole in his Brain”).

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442 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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567 Words | 3 Pages

While receiving treatment for her tumor, doctors decided to take samples without her knowledge. They found her cells to be quite extraordinary, that they contain a special enzyme that no one else has ever had. The cells do not die, they became the first immortal human cell line to grow in culture, they are known as HeLa cells. Henrietta’s cells had been used so much in research that it is estimated that there were over 50 million metric tons in the world at the time when Skloot was writing the novel. With her cells gaining popularity and recognition in the medical research field the Lacks family had no knowledge of this at all.

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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.

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663 Words | 3 Pages

“Was It Illegal for Doctors to Take Cells from Henrietta Lacks Without her Consent?” How can you take cells from a human being and treat them as clothes that you’re just selling. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot told the story of the woman behind the famous cell line and the fact that her family did not know about Lacks’ immortal cells until more than 20 years after her death. Some believe it was legal to take Mrs. Lacks cells, while others disagree and say it’s illegal. It was definitely illegal for the doctors and scientist to take Henrietta’s cells without her consent.

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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.

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733 Words | 3 Pages

I have always had a passion for learning about how the human body operates. I want to take my knowledge and assist patients in their process to get back to good health. If anything, this book has caused me to want to become a health care provider even more. Henrietta’s experience at John Hopkins was an unfortunate situation. The doctors probably did not expect her cells to be as advantageous as they were, but they still should have asked for her consent.

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462 Words | 2 Pages

The final violation of ethical principles, in the story of Henrietta Lacks, was the violation of justice. Without the contribution of Henrietta’s cells, many discoveries and vaccines, such as the vaccine that conquered Polio, would not have made their pivotal breakthroughs in biomedical research. Her direct and unknowingly, supportive contribution helped save many people’s lives all over the world. Unfortunately, her named did not receive the recognition it deserved, and her family never received any compensation for profits made from direct use of her

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1017 Words | 5 Pages

Susan B. Anthony (Susan Brownell Anthony) Susan B. Anthony was a prominent feminist author who started the movement of women’s suffrage and she was also the president of the National American Women Suffrage Association. Anthony was in favor of abolitionism as she was a fierce activist in the anti-slavery movement before the civil war. Susan Anthony was born on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts, and before becoming a famous feminist figure, she worked as a teacher. Anthony grew up in a Quaker family that made her spend her time working on social causes. And her father was an owner of a local cotton mill.

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622 Words | 3 Pages

This eventually led to a family member becoming so stressed and worn out from this ordeal that she had a stroke. The publicity could have been wonderful, but the press cared about the cells, and the cells only. The family had to protect the reputation of Henrietta as a person. They did not want her to be remembered solely for having the first immortal cells. Therefore, they did not talk to the press and kept to themselves until they were approached by the right person.

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