Henrietta Lacks’ Impact on Medical Research Then and Now
What happens to the sample just taken out of your body that is now being sent to pathology? Is it just tested for one disease and tossed away in biomedical waste, or is it tested and taken somewhere else to be studied for further research? Do we get a say in how we want our tissues used? Henrietta Lacks is just one answer to these questions on why we now have stricter consent forms for various medical procedures. Through her cells we see the impact it created in medical research and understand ethical issues that arose from this experience. I, as many others in the world, strive for an answer on how to stop cancer from occurring and curing it once and for all. 1951 in Baltimore, Henrietta Lacks was a beautiful 30-year-old mother of five children who went to the gynecologist because of spotting between monthly cycles. On examination a lesion was found on her cervix that was biopsied for pathology and found to be epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix, Stage I cancer. This was an interesting case because when Henrietta’s cancer cells were tested they weren’t like other cancer cells; they were aggressive and grew very rapidly. Her tissue was then kept for
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Atlanta repaid the Lacks family by giving each child an award for their mother’s contributions to the medical field through the discovery of the Polio vaccine, and the many advances it has on cancer research, and the honor that in Atlanta on October 11th it is referred to as Henrietta Lacks day. I also believe a fair remuneration for the family would be free health insurance for each of Henrietta’s children and her husband. This is fair because they are fully insured medically for anything that could happen to her children and the fact that there could still have research be pursued legally from now