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Henrietta Lacks Research Papers

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Immortal Henrietta Informed consent is an ethically important aspect of medical care; patients must be fully informed of any and all possible risks and benefits from receiving medical treatment, participating in medical research as a subject, or donating live tissues to be studied. Only after receiving and understanding all of the necessary information can a patient give consent; if the patient does not consent, for whatever reason, then it is both illegal and unethical to follow through with treatment, research, or taking samples (O’Neill, 2003). However, particularly in regard to taking tissue samples, some doctors seem to think that what the patient doesn’t know won’t hurt them. One example of this is Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells. …show more content…

In January 1951, she was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer; she died in October of the same year (Skloot, 2010). Before she died, one of her doctors took a sample of cells from her tumor without either informing Henrietta nor asking her consent. The cells were allowed to reproduce in a petri dish; unlike ordinary human cells that die after so many reproductions, Henrietta’s cell continued to reproduce. They are commonly known as immortal HeLa cells, and they are still reproducing and being used in labs all over the world (Longwill, 2016). It wasn’t until more than 20 years after Henrietta’s death that her family was even aware that the HeLa cells existed. The cells had been used to cure polio, and they had been used to research other diseases, such as lung cancer, leukemia, Parkinson’s, and others (Longwill, 2010). Scientists were selling vials of the HeLa cells to other labs all around the world, while Henrietta’s family struggled. Even to this day, not a single member of Henrietta’s family has received any kind of compensation for Henrietta’s contribution to medicine. HENRIETTA 3 Henrietta’s daughter Deborah was angry that the cells were harvested from her …show more content…

However, “the Lacks family has come to be proud of Henrietta’s scientific contributions” (Longwill, 2010). Even though they have accepted the existence of the cells and are glad the cells have benefitted so many people and they no longer expect any kind of monetary compensation, it was still unethical for the doctor to take and use the cells without Henrietta’s consent. While it is too late to get that consent, it is still possible to offer the family some kind of recognition or reimbursement. One way to compensate the family is to properly acknowledge Henrietta; as previously stated, not all scientists know Henrietta’s name. It should be properly taught in medical classes that her name is Henrietta Lacks, and it should be made widely known that it is thanks to her that the polio vaccine and other medical advances were made. Also, it is still possible to offer each member of her family a percentage from each vial of Henrietta’s cells that are sold. HENRIETTA 4 References Longwill, L. (2016, 02). WHOSE CELL LINE IS IT ANYWAY?: Science, ethics, and

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a novel written by Rebecca Skloot, a science reporter, depicting the lives of Henrietta Lacks’s family and their connection between them and Henrietta’s famous cancer cells “HeLa Cells”. Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951 and was treated with radium and radiation therapy. During her treatment process, the tumor and other cancerous tissue that was removed from her body was sent George Gey's lab at Hopkins to be grown in test tubes all without Lacks’s consent or knowledge. The cells were successfully able to divide and give the scientific community a good supply of human cancer cells to experiment on. The Lacks’s family was never informed about the cells even when there were amazing

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Henrietta’s cells became the first to manage to live outside of the body in a culture created by Margaret, and these cells are still growing to this day. They have been packaged, shipped and sold countless times. The HeLa cells have made the biggest contribution to human kind in regards of medical research on cancer, polio, and many more viruses. There is a report of the insane experiments done to these cells, and since they are not a person, ethical limitations are nonexistent. HeLa opened the gates to

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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.

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Immortal cells from a woman who never even knew they’d been stolen from her. Henrietta Lacks would change the medical field without even knowing it. Henrietta had a family, a love life, and trials, before her unfortunate death. Henrietta was born on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke Virginia. She was born on the floor of a house that was known as the “The Home-House.”

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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?

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The book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” written by Rebecca Skloot revolves around an African American woman who began life as a poor tobacco farmer, but soon after being diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951 would unknowingly become one of the most important people in history. Unfortunately many would come to simply know her as “HeLa” the first “immortal” human cell line instead of another human being who had the right to know what doctors would soon do to her. She was strong woman and great mother to five unique children; Elsie, Lawrence, David (Sonny), Deborah, and finally Zakariyya (born Joe). The story itself tends to transition between the past and the present day. It gives us the story from both the perspective of Henrietta’s

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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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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

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493 Words | 2 Pages

Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman from the 1900s. She was diagnosed with cancer and had her cancer cells cultured without her consent. These cancer cell lines are known as HeLa cell lines and one of the first immortalized cell lines utilized in current medical research. The fundamental issue with Henrietta Lacks’ HeLa cells is that the researchers never obtained consent for the use of these cells; nevertheless, these cells have benefitted greatly for the area of research. Not only were the cells useful for finding treatments for diseases, but the cells were also utilized in space studies too.

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Even after her death at an early age, a crucial part of her still lives on to this very day. This essential part of her is known to scientists around the world as HeLa cells. These cells have been a pivotal part in many major medical breakthroughs throughout the past several decades. These cells have a unique facet about them, Henrietta’s cells from her cervical cancer tissue are immortal and do not die. These cells continue to multiple over and

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847 Words | 4 Pages

HeLa has made a great contribution to the way that the world sees and learns about cells. The HeLa cells have a astonishing story behind them. This story starts with a women names Henrietta Lacks. In the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot told us the journey of the Lacks family and pointed out many ethical problems throughout the book. The issue of race was what stood out the most to me as I was reading.

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738 Words | 3 Pages

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,

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828 Words | 4 Pages

Her cells have became immortal but Henrietta and her family never gave consent. Even her husband said no after her death! But the cells were taken before her death. If Henrietta Lacks was a white and upper class, the story of her

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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.

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381 Words | 2 Pages

When Henrietta’s case is revealed to people, their first response is usually: “Wasn’t it illegal for doctors to take Henrietta’s cells without her knowledge and consent? Don’t doctors have to tell you when they use your cells in research?” Well...no. At least, not in the 1950s to the early 21st century. People are often confused on how they should feel about this situation, which is understandable.

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