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The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

747 Words3 Pages

The HeLa cell line was known to be the oldest successful cell line which has been extensively used in scientific inquiry. It became an invaluable tool in the advancement on of medical and clinical researches encompassing the development of vaccines, understanding the physiology of viruses and other infectious agents, devising developing in vitro fertilization techniques, and even in the use of genomic sequencing.

Remarkable as the number of medical frontiers and research breakthroughs that were pushed and made possible by the famous immortal cells—HeLa, it has also been a great “source of anxiety, confusion and frustration for the family of the woman, Henrietta Lacks, from whom the cells were taken without consent more than 60 years ago” …show more content…

The book lays bare the painful history, what can be called as disquieting in present ethical views, on how tissue samples were obtained without consent and how the family was kept in the dark about HeLa cells for many years since Lacks’ death in 1951, which evoked questions and issues on privacy and ethics in the practice of medical and scientific research. Even so, during the that time it was not considered unethical to obtain living tissue samples from a patient without consent or to provide unauthorized medical …show more content…

Later their medical records were released to the press and published without consent,” Skloot wrote.
Initially, the Lacks family had no idea that Henrietta’s cells were used in groundbreaking accomplishments. Adding salt to the wound, the family was never, even poorly, compensated from a multibillion dollar profit earned by cell line companies who made use of Gey’s HeLa cells. Moreover, even the family of the “most important woman” considered by the research community did not even have the chance to access treatments that were developed using HeLa cells. The Lacks’ could simply not afford them.

By the year 2013, the research community yet again wounded the Lacks’ family when German scientists published the data of the successfully sequenced HeLa’s genome without their knowledge. Never had anyone expected it to become a bioethical lightning rod which sparked controversy and reopened old wounds. Jeri Lacks-Whye, Lacks’ granddaughter said during a press

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The HeLa cells not only survived, they grew intensely and kept right on growing as much as their given space would allow. It seemed like the cells would never stop growing, thus came the label of the immortal cells (Skloot, 2010). HeLa cells became a very important part of scientific research, and Henrietta’s name became well-known among Gey’s colleagues. On November 2, 1953, the real name behind the HeLa cells was leaked by the press, but they got it wrong, Henrietta Lakes was reported as the source of the cells in the Minneapolis Star. Gey and Dr. TeLinde, the cervical cancer specialist at John Hopkins, decided to allow their story about Henrietta to be told in a more accurate account, but they wanted to withhold her name.

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HeLa has helped our world in many ways, as many as 70,000 medical studies and even more till this day. Her cells have been very needful in the development of drugs for herpes leukemia influenza (flu) and Parkinson’s disease. They have been used in many things like lactose digestion and mosquito mating. Before HeLa cells scientists spent more time keeping cells alive than actual research, an endless supply of HeLa freed up time for that(Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

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People did not know the truth about HeLa because Hopkins hospital hid the fact that they took living samples of Henrietta’s cells without consent. “-Add quote-“they did it to continue and advance in their research. From HeLa the scientific world was booming with questions. “–Add quote-“they asked questions such as where was HeLa from and who’s the patient was with the cells. Not to mention Hopkins did not release Henrietta name because they did not want people to find out who she really was.

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And somewhere along the line, HeLa cells came from Helen Lane. Whether this was done to keep Henrietta’s identity a secret or not, give credit to Henrietta Lacks, who was an African American woman during the 40’s, Henrietta’s identity was kept a secret. Apart from that, I have already mentioned the hundreds of innovations brought about by Hela cells. Only for Henrietta’s children and spouse to never receive any credit, or compensation for that matter. The Lacks family has paid large amounts for medical coverage and

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Within the novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks written by Rebecca Skloot, Lacks and her family face many adversities. One adversity major mistreatment of Henrietta is while she's in the care of Dr. Gey. During her struggles Dr. Gey was removing tissue samples without informing Lacks his full intentions which was very wrong, but the arrival of Henrietta's cells proved to be vital in the advancement of the Science and medical fields. A sudden boom of new scientific research, and medical breakthroughs were now within in reach. One example of a major solution solved by HeLa cells was the expense of culturing cells, before Scientist would have to kill monkeys to obtain cells in order to run neutralization tests, this proved to be costly and

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Skloot spent years researching Henrietta Lacks, and every source had the same singular fact: Henrietta was the woman behind the HeLa cells. Skloot was determined to fix this by finding the true story and sharing it with the world, to honor Henrietta. Skloot worked tirelessly to make sure her book was filled only with truths, and checked all of her sources meticulously. 3. Throught the book, there are hundreds quotes from primary sources including but not limited to, the Lackses, colleagues of Dr. Gey (the founder of HeLa cells), and Henrietta’s medical records.

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One of the ironies explored in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is the dichotomy between the vast value of the HeLa cell line—which has been used in the development of the polio vaccine, nuclear bomb testing, the

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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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Compared to the Lacks family, the Lacks knew their mother didn’t give consent for them to be using her cells for research. Skloot gives this example to the readers to compare both victims and their families suffered from misuse of informed consent. Even though this happen to the Henrietta in the 1950s, John situation is a little more current in time, it

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Introduction The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was an intriguing book. It not only discussed scientific thought but also other subjects as well. The book shows both the scientists point of view and the family’s point of view. In the scientists point of view the families and Henrietta’s consent was not needed.

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Henrietta Lacks made one of the most substantial contributions to modern medical science in human history. Her cells have helped millions of the people and have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. The name Henrietta Lacks was unknown to the world for decades. Alternatively, they used other names to hide the identity of the person who had donated the cells. Now her name and her cells are known by scientists across the world.

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Gey and Dr. TeLinde, doctors at Johns Hopkins, received a letter from Roland H. Berg, a press officer, explaining how he planned to write an article about the woman behind HeLa cells. Dr. Gey replied “I have discussed the matter with Dr. TeLinde, and he has agreed to allow this material to be presented in a popular magazine article. We must, however, withhold the name of the patient” (Skloot 106). Johns Hopkins doctors wanted to withhold Henrietta’s personal life and records, so they gave the public a fake name, Helen Lane. Doctors and other medical professionals didn’t see Henrietta as a person, instead, they saw her as a cell line and her contributions to medical advancements.

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The scientists and media that did not know the name Henrietta Lacks but knew the name of the cell line HeLa showed the disregard Scientists had for the Lacks family. In 1951, poor African American women named Henrietta lacks discovered what she thought was a “knot in her stomach” that turned out to be cervical cancer. Doctors thought they could take a few cells from Henrietta without her consent or

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The origination of HeLa cells, used in biomedical research for a potential cure for cancer, had made many ground breaking discoveries in science; all thanks to one woman, Mrs. Henrietta Lacks. The history of Mrs. Lacks’s contribution to these studies raised many ethical issues concerning healthcare practice. In the short film, The Way of All Flesh, we learn how these cells were revealed by direct violation of ethical principles. During the 1950s, matters regarding informed consent practices were in their beginning stages of implementation.

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Scientists and doctors made great discoveries with the HeLa cells of Henrietta Lacks. The family of Henrietta Lacks had to live with the aftermath of decisions made by doctors and

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