Experiment of HeLa Cells in Patients

Finding discoveries that would greatly benefit medicine have always been difficult to achieve in cancer research. Though, everything changed on February 1, 1951, when Howard Jones discovered that Henrietta Lacks had cervical cancer. When George Gey heard of this, he took samples from Henrietta Lacks’ tumor, and found something that changed for future medical research. George Gey had noticed that Henrietta Lacks’ cancer cells was the first human cell line that could be consistently passaged. The cells were later called HeLa cells, which were named after Henrietta Lacks. Even though scientists greatly benefited from it, Henrietta Lacks, nor her family profited from it.

HeLa simply stands for Henrietta Lacks, a young mother in the 1951 who went to the doctor complaining of vaginal bleeding and discovered she had cervical cancer. Henrietta’s cells were taken for a biopsy and were found to be like nothing ever seen before; her cells were immortal. Her cancer cells double every 20 to 24 hours and have lived on for the past 60 years. Since HeLa cells were created, our world of modern medicine has been completely changed. We now vaccines for once incurable diseases and have used the cells for cloning and other biomedical research. Although the cells have done a great deal of good,

In this semester’s book club, I have enjoyed the book called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This book describes a true and famous cell line in the medical research field, that is the first immortal cell line in the world, HeLa cells. Not until I finished reading this fantastic book, I know that the HeLa cells were taken from a cervical cancer patient, Henrietta Lacks, without letting her know the truth about using her cells in research, even though she died. What more surprising to me was that her family lived a hard life without health insurance while the researchers make many profits from developing HeLa cells, they were never informed about their family member’s devotion to the scientific research.

In 1951, Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer at John Hopkins Hospital. Without any consent, Henrietta’s doctors took tissue samples from her cervix and attempted to grow them and keep them alive. These cells, known as HeLa cells, began to grow at an unbelievable rate; The HeLa cell became vital for the development of vaccines and other scientific research. However because of Henrietta’s race and economic standpoint, Henrietta Lacks and the rest of the Lacks family was exploited by doctors. The exploitation of the family allowed the doctors and researchers to benefit scientifically and monetarily.

In the novel, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, scientists steal cancerous cells from a middle aged black woman named Henrietta Lacks without her consent. She soon passed away and her cells were then put in culture and, unlike any other cells previously, succeeded in growing and reproducing outside of the body. This new breakthrough led to a scientific revolution that changed the world as we know it. The cells, called HeLa, were mass produced in factories and distributed all around the world. They allowed scientists to conduct studies and experiments that were impossible before; consequently, numerous new discoveries and cures were made and polio was eradicated. However, Henrietta’s family had no idea what her cells did

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010) is a result of Rebecca Skloot’s discovery and findings devoted to Henrietta’s life story along with her family members that revived the real person behind tremendous scientific accomplishments sprung of immortal HeLa cells’ exploitation. The research of HeLa cells has changed various areas of medical study and stepped forward scientific breakthroughs that continues today. HeLa cells were central for developing the polio vaccine; exposed secrets of breast cancer and leukemia; lead to important advances in vitro fertilization, cloning, genetic hybrids, gene mapping in virology, HIV, HPV, tuberculosis, telomerase, salmonella, live cell transport, for profit distribution of cells, scientific standards, space biology and nanotech (Skloot 2). HeLa, “Goddess of Death” (Skloot 250), cells have been exposed to household chemicals, drugs, cosmetics, viruses, radiation, and biological weapons (Skloot 252). Following Henrietta Lacks’ death in 1951 “from a vicious case of cervical cancer” (Skloot 3), doctors began a massive production of trillions of HeLa cells each week. The produce, more than fifty million metric tons, of a HeLa factory has been bought and sold by the billions. In spite of all of this, Henrietta Lacks, the woman from whom HeLa cells came, stayed unknown to the public for a half of the century and buried in an unmarked grave. Even Henrietta’s family for many years stayed ignorant about what had been accomplished using their

In the book, “ The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by the author Rebecca Skloot, showed the story of an African American woman who was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and her cells became the first immortal human cells. Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer in her early thirties, at Hopkins hospital, which was for families that could not afford for medical procedures and treatments. Doctors and experts at Hopkins did not take consent form Henrietta, when they took a sample of her diseased cells. Her cells later became known as HeLa cells, those cells changed the medicine industry and advanced treatments and procedures than ever before. However, her family never knew or told until many years later, people were making profit out

Within the novel The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks written by Rebecca Skloot, the exponential growth of research due to the introduction of HeLa cells is exemplified through the vast scientific breakthroughs achieved. Before the presence of HeLa cells scientist had an endless amount of questions and theories but were unable to test their hypothesis due to lack of a perfect test subject. HeLa cells grew in almost every medium and most importantly, they grew fast. HeLa cells were especially useful when trying to study viruses, and the effects of certain antibiotics and other medicinal substances. Part 3 of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks provides multiple instances where the use of HeLa cells was detrimental for medical research. One major use for Henrietta's cell was the medical

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is an amazingly captivating book about an African American woman who died in 1951 of cervical cancer, whose cells became the first in history to be able to survive and replicate endlessly outside of the human body. Skloot covers the true story on the impact Henrietta’s cells, also known as HeLa cells, had on her family and the world of science. Although I was intrigued by the entire book and the concept of HeLa cells, what truly provoked me to want to further research the topic was the injustice Henrietta’s family was forced to face, and how they learned to cope with it.

Soutman decided to test out other scientist theories using HeLa cells. In page 28,paragraph 1, skloot states “He repeated this process with about a dozen other patients. He told them he was testing their immune system…” southman does this procedure without telling any of his patients what he was actually doing. He started to remove tumors from patients but in some patients the tumors would come back. Since the patients he had injected already had cancer he wanted to test a healthy human being to see how they would react when being injected. In page 128 paragraph 5, skloot says “he chose the ohio prison because it inmates had cooperated in several other studies without resistance , including one in which they'd been infected with a potentially dead disease…” South man knew if they had already done

In 1951, Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer at John Hopkins Hospital. Henrietta complained of a knot in her womb that caused her pain so she decided to visit the hospital in search of diagnosis. After being diagnosed with cervical cancer, the doctor recommended a biopsy be done on her cancerous tissue. Without any consent, Henrietta’s doctors took tissue samples from her cervix and attempted to grow them and keep them alive. These cells were known as HeLa cells, they began to grow at an unbelievable rate; The HeLa cell became vital for the development of vaccines and other scientific research. However because of Henrietta’s race and economic standpoint, Henrietta Lacks and the rest of the Lacks family was exploited by doctors. The exploitation of the family allowed the doctors and researchers to benefit scientifically and monetarily.

In addition, the scientist began carrying out research on the Lack’s children and they were not aware of the purpose of the research. During this time, HeLa cells were the most studied by researchers and scientist. Vaccines grown from her cells were used by doctors to inject both cancerous patients as well as healthy patients with the intention of testing them. Injecting healthy patients without certainty that the patient will not develop cancer is unethical and also many of these studies were done without patient’s knowledge. For instance, when Skloot describes Southam, a virologist who conducted studies on patient and lied to them about the study. He told his patients that he was testing their immune system without revealing anything regarding injecting the patients with cancerous cells. During that period, prisoners countrywide were employed for all types of studies and this included the HeLa’s cell study. In some studies, left them infected with deadly disease. The inability by the inmates to make informed consent makes that study on prisoners unethical and should be

Lacks was an African-American who was a tobacco farmer; later in life she endured radiation treatments in the hospital ward. The HeLa cells, named from the first letters of her name, were remove through a biopsy without her consent and reproduced in the laboratories at Johns Hopkins University. This

This article explains how Henrietta Lacks’ cells (HeLa) were essential in developing the polio vaccine and were used for other scientific milestones, such as cloning, gene mapping and in vitro fertilisation. The cells were also the first to travel to space in order to see effects of zero gravity. The source also mentions how Henrietta’s family were not aware of the experimentation on her cells for twenty

The book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, was a nonfiction story about the life of Henrietta Lacks, who died of cervical cancer in 1951. Henrietta did not know that her doctor took a sample of her cancer cells a few months before she died. “Henrietta cells that called HeLa were the first immortal human cells ever grown in a laboratory” (Skloot 22). In fact, the cells from her cervix are the most important advances in medical research. Rebecca was interested to write this story because she was anxious with the story of HeLa cells. When she was in biology class, her professor named Donald Defler gave a lecture about cells. Defler tells the story about Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells. However, the professor ended his