Immortal Lives Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

In the first part of the Immortal Lives of Henrietta Lacks, life, Rebecca Skloot expounded on the discovery and origin of HeLa cells and how Henrietta Lacks and her family were involved in this situation. Conversely, the second part of this book was called death, which is the complete opposite of life. After reading the second part, I believe that this segment of the book concentrates more on the aftermath of Henrietta Lacks’s death, and elaborate how the discoveries of HeLa cells after her death impacted the world and her family as a whole. Written in a similar fashion of part one of the book, part two not only focused on Henrietta Lacks’s family before and after her death, but it also expanded on the scientific breakthroughs and discoveries

After tested successful for simulating human cells, HeLa cells were utilized in various field due to its high growth rate. One important medical breakthrough that involved the contribution of HeLa cells was the development of polio vaccine by Jonas Salk in 1951. Before this treatment was invented Polio was a serious problem that jeopardized the whole population. In addition, research regarding polio virus was slow because the monkey cells used to simulate human cells were expensive and the demand of cells was astronomical. However, after Gey discovered HeLa cells, National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) sought for the help of him and other experts. Not only did HeLa cells solve the problem of lacking cheap and fast-growing cells, but William Scherer, a researcher in NFIP, also found that HeLa cells were in actuality more susceptible to polio virus. Therefore, without HeLa cells, the vaccine for polio virus may not be discovered that soon. This application of HeLa cell in medical field accelerated the whole process of employing HeLa cells in studies concerning other viruses such as herpes and mumps. Additionally, the mass production of HeLa cells had set

Nevertheless, the concept of experimental ethics was still in its infancy, which led to a lot of controversies. In the case of Henrietta Lacks and further experiments regarding HeLa cells, ethical problems were seen quite often. First off, in terms of patient confidentiality, I think what George Gey and his fellow scientists did to conceal Henrietta’s name when reporters were asking had a good intention. However, I would not give off any form of information if I were Gey. The next ethical issue I found in this book is informed consent. When Hopkins wanted more blood samples from the Lacks, the doctors told Day that the blood sample would be used to see if they would be prone to develop cancer in the future; however, the true intention of the doctors was to see if the Lacks had something that can contribute to further HeLa cell research. Also, informed consent was not present in this case of Henrietta’s autopsy. Although Day did get a consent form, he did not fully understand the agreements written on the paper. If Day had known that Henrietta’s cells would be used in experiments, he would not have agreed. In addition, another important case of informed consent violation is the experiment done by Chester Southam. When he injected HeLa cells in the patients arm without telling them about HeLa cells and their cancerous traits, Southam severely violated the concept of informed consent and the Nuremburg