Abstraction In Today's Society

The main ethical issues in this case is that researches at Johns Hopkins Hospital used Henrietta’s cell in multiple researches and send her cells to other researchers around the world without her family’s consent. Moreover, the Lackes themselves were used in medical research without informed consent, and Henrietta’s medical records were release to journalists without her family knowing.

They called him Crazy Joe because he was crazy for Henrietta (Skloot 23). He would run circles around her, begging for a date, since she was the prettiest girl in the Lacks Town. Nothing much happened between him and Henrietta besides some dates and some kisses, but it’s rumored that he is father of one her children (Skloot 23 and 24). However, it was no surprise that Day and Henrietta started having kids. They had been living in the same room since Henrietta was four. Their first child, Lawrence, was born a few months after Henrietta’s fourteenth birthday (Skloot 23). When Henrietta was to married Day, her sister said that Henrietta could do better than Day, but it is rumored that her sister was jealous of Henrietta and that’s why she was against the marriage. Also, when Crazy Joe found out about the marriage, he ended up stabbing himself over it (Skloot 24). Henrietta and Day were married on April 10, 1941 (Skloot 24). They have five children, Joseph Lacks, David Lacks, Jr., Deborah Lacks, Elsie Lacks, and Lawrence Lacks (Skloot 14-15, 23, and 67). I could never truly understand the hardships this woman had growing up,

Diagnosed with cervical cancer, she was sent to John Hopkins hospital for treatment. Henrietta’s doctor, without consent, gave cell samples to Dr. Gey for cancer research. Dr. Gey soon realized the cells did not die in vitro, but continued to divide and flourish. Twenty years passed since the death of Henrietta Lacks, and her family remained impoverished and lacked health care. Coincidentally, a member of the Lacks family met an employee of the National Cancer Institute. Recognizing her surname, he claimed he was working with the cells of a women named Henrietta Lacks. The Lacks family was shocked and did not completely understand how their mother could still exist as the smallest unit of life. Today, companies who sell HeLa cells make billions of dollars, while the Lacks family does not receive any compensation or health

Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed for cervical cancer in 1951 in the black wing of John Hopkins Hospital by Doctor George Gey. At the time, Gey was searching for cells that could survive on their own in a petrie dish. He took samples from many, if not most, of his patients in hopes of finding cells that would survive on their own. His attempts were unsuccessful until he took a sample of Henrietta Lack's tumor, which managed to not only stay viable but reproduced at a rapid pace. But, there was a catch. Henrietta Lacks and her family had no idea that Gey took her cells or that he and other doctors would make billions of dollars off of her cells long after she died and left her five kids and husband to live in poverty. Skloot tells the fascinating

Henrietta’s family also did not give consent to take her cells, to continue to use them, or to publish makings of their own DNA makeup by publishing hers. Her family continued to be very poor for many years following their mothers’ death. They could not even afford adequate medical care for themselves while scientists, medical professionals, pharmaceutical companies were getting rich of the cells they stole from their mother without anyone’s knowledge or consent. (Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, 2010) Henrietta Lacks family went on living without her for more than twenty years before any of them were even told about the cells. Her husband was the first to find out. “So a postdoc called Henrietta’s husband one day. But he had a third-grade education and didn’t even know what a cell was.” (Zielinski, "Henrietta Lacks’ ‘Immortal’ Cells", 2010)

No one would have suspected when Henrietta Lacks was born in 1920 that she would change the study of cells forever. She was born with the name Loretta Pleasant to Eliza and Johnny Pleasant, however her name was soon changed to Henrietta. When her mother died in 1924 giving birth to her tenth child, Henrietta’s father gave his children to the care of various relatives in Virginia. Henrietta ended up in the care of her grandfather, Tommy Lacks, and sharing a room with her cousin David “Day” Lacks (Biography.com Editors).

Also, while the doctors were making money off of Henrietta’s cells the family was struggling to get by and received no compensation. The Lacks’ family are African-American, in which, during the 1950s racism and segregation were still dreadfully thriving. Since the Lacks’ family were of a different color it was very difficult for them to be checked out by any kind of doctor. One ethical issue throughout the book is the proper supply of giving consent. Skloot wrote in her book, “no one told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting samples or asked if she wanted to be a donor” (33). Henrietta had no knowledge that the doctors were going to take cells from her tumor and cells from her healthy cervical tissue to try and grow them for medical research. If Henrietta knew what her cells could have done medically then she most likely would have allowed them to take her cells and done research. However, taking someone’s cells or doing something to someone’s body without them knowing will in no way be

Lacks was born in 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia. After her mother’s death in 1924, Lacks was sent to live with her grandfather in a log cabin that had been the slave quarters of a white ancestor’s plantation. She shared a room with with her first cousin, Day Lacks. Henrietta and Day grew closer together and had a child in 1935 when Henrietta was fourteen. They had a son, Lawrence and daughter Elise. They got married in 1941, and moved to Maryland where they had three more children; David (Sonny), Deborah, and Joseph(Joe). Their daughter Elise, who was developmentally disabled, was placed in the Hospital for the Negro Insane. In January 1951, Lacks went to the John Hopkins Hospital because she felt serious abdominal pain and was bleeding. Lacks was a very strong woman who dealt with pain and suffering very well, so her going to the hospital was a big deal. She was very quickly diagnosed with cervical cancer and began radiation treatment soon after. Unbenounced to Lacks, during these treatments, doctors removed two samples from the tumor. Her pain and suffering continued for a few months until, in October, she died at the Johns Hopkins Hospital at the age of 31. (Skloot, 2011) The cells taken from her body were used to form the HeLa cell line. This case has sparked legal and ethical debates over the rights of an individual to his or her genetic material and

Henrietta Lacks was born in 1920, the eight of ten children. Her mother died in 1924, and her father took all the children to the family’s home in Clover,Virginia and made them split up to live with different relatives.Lacks was placed with her grandfather, Tommy Lacks.They lived in a four room cabin that was once used for slavery. This cabin became the biggest part of her life. Henrietta was pretty popular in high school. She was very gorgeous, so she got a lot of attention from boys. Her affections came from her cousins Day and “Crazy Joe”. The cousin, Day, was the boy she had stayed with in the cabin ever since she was young. They had two children. One was Lawerence and the other was Elsie, who was mentally retarded. Henrietta and Day ended up getting married two years after Elsie’s birth.

In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, the family of Henrietta is never given true Justice. Justice is fair treatment. When righteousness, equitableness, and respect is shown that is true justice. Religion, race, or gender should never affect how a person should be treated, they deserve to be given equal justice to any other person. The Lacks family never received justice. Therefore, they were never informed that John Hopkins toke Henrietta's cells and they never knew that they would be so helpful to science. At the time Henrietta’s cells were taken, there was no law for informing or obtaining consent from cell donors. Until years later did the family of Henrietta find out that the famous HeLa cells were not Helen Lane’s or Helen Larson’s cells, but they were Henrietta Lacks Cells. Since the family of Henrietta never got the recognition they deserved and never made any money off of her cells, they never got the justice they deserved.

Henrietta Lacks was “a black woman whose body, they [the people of the black community] say, was exploited by white scientists.” During a surgical procedure on Lack’s cervix, Dr.Lawrence Wharton Jr. removed and sent samples of her cancerous tissue to Dr. George Gey without her consent. This practice paved the way for scientists all over the world to take advantage of the underprivileged and minority, such as African-Americans, due to their lack of education. Despite laws regarding informed consent, the medical community often treated these people simply as research subjects rather than humans because they did not want to “interfere with the progress of science.” Other than her research with the Lacks family, Skloot also referenced

Even Dr. Gey, his gathered cells which he could have profited to make millions of dollars likely to be billions today choose to freely distribute them. John Hopkins released the response “Johns Hopkins never patented HeLa cells, nor did it sell them commercially or benefit in a direct financial way”. The institute altruism allowed for research breakthroughs in Cancer, HIV/AIDS, Vaccines, and prevention of Virus, although I argue that the lawsuit is unjustified the Lacks family should be going after those who directly made a fortune the private cosmetic companies are a few names to include. Claims against the institution again that it was using poverty stricken blacks only for research would be refuted, this time the opponents agree that clinic “In fact it was built for the benefit of Baltimore’s poor” (Pg. 166). It is intellectually dishonest to blame a contributor than the actual benefiter in my opinion, even worse when it’s widely

Henrietta Lacks was an ordinary women, nothing too extraordinary. However, on the day she walked into John Hopkins, the entire world changed. Let us be reminded that this was during the 1950’s, so there was still the colored and white sides of the hospital. However, Hopkins was still one of the top hospitals in the country, and colored people were not excluded from that. Henrietta went in for a gynecological appointment, when she learned she had cervical cancer. However, this was not the only thing that happened at the appointment. Dr. Howard Jones, without permission, took a biopsy of Henrietta’s tumor and sent samples to his laboratory colleagues. From there, Dr. TeLinde became involved. He was trying to find a cure

The Lacks family was greatly taken advantage of in the 1950s because of their race, lack of education, and social class. The family believes they should be compensated with a donation given the amount of money Henrietta’s cells were worth. Her cells were sold all over the world for a large sum of money. Additionally, several scientific discoveries were uncovered because of Henrietta’s cells. The new knowledge has no price. However the family is continuing to look for a donation. The Lock’s family should not receive monetary compensation for her donation because it there were laws in place at the time preventing patients from suing hospitals regarding interactions with cells and other things.

The medical community did not explain to or inform the Lacks family of the HeLa cells; along the way the scientists altogether forgot that Henrietta and her family were not abstractions but actual people. The family felt that this was unethical; they felt their mother was robbed and taken advantage of. Despite the spread of HeLa cells and the whirlwind of new research that followed, there were no recent news or stories about “the birth of the amazing HeLa cell line” (Skloot 58). In the beginning, when Gey had kept the origin of the cells- or Henrietta - a secret, no one knew where the cells had came from and no one cared to ask.