Hela Cells: An Ethical Dilemma

Henrietta Lacks was born Loretta Pleasant on August 1st, 1920 to Eliza and John Randall Pleasant, in Roanoke, Virginia. It is uncertain how her name changed from Loretta to Henrietta. After her mother, Eliza, passed away giving birth to her tenth child in 1924 her father, John, distributed his children to relatives in Clover, Virginia. Henrietta ended up with her grandfather in a log cabin that previously had been slave quarters for a white ancestor’s plantation. Henrietta shared a room in the cabin with her cousin, David Lacks. In 1935, when Henrietta was 14 years of age, the cousins had their son Lawrence. Four years later the couple had Elsie their handicapped daughter, following her birth they proceeded to marry in 1941. In Maryland, where they moved at the urging of their cousin, they had three more children: David Jr., Deborah, and Joseph. At Johns Hopkins Hospital on January 29th, 1952, Physician Howard Jones quickly diagnosed Henrietta with cervical cancer. On October 4th, 1957, at the age of 31, Henrietta Lacks passed away at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is the story of Hela cells and the women and family behind them. HeLa cells are the cells that have helped scientists all around the world discover cures and vaccines that have saved thousands of lives. But before they did all those things, they were inside a woman, named Henrietta Lacks, and were taken from her without her knowledge. Her family would not know about her cells until years after her death and millions of dollars in revenue gained from the HeLa cells. At the time doctors did what was considered common practice but did they cross a line? Or were the amazing scientific achievements enough to excuse the violation of personal privacy? Despite good intentions doctors should never have taken Henrietta’s cells without her consent, and furthermore her family deserves compensation for the work those cells have helped accomplish, and the sometimes horrible circumstances they have had to deal with because of the cells.

Loretta Pleasant now known as Henrietta Lacks was born on August 1, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia. Her mother died in 1924 while giving birth to her tenth child and her father took her and the rest of the children back to Clover, Virginia. The children were split up to live with their relatives. Henrietta was sent to live with

I believe that the Lacks family should without a doubt be compensated for the HeLa cells. There were so many unethical things done to not only Henrietta but here family as well especially with the DNA blood samples that were taken and they deserve the right to be compensated. So many scientist made money off of the cells

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.

In the example with the HeLa cells, a great debate was raised when the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was published. The debate centered around the lack of information of where the cells came from, who should have known about the original harvesting, and the lack of compensation for Henrietta’s family once the cells started generating income. Also discussed was the tendency of the medical community to

Henrietta Lacks was born as Loretta Pleasant. At some point in time, she changed her name to Henrietta. After her mother died in 1924, she was sent to live with her grandfather in a log cabin, that had been the slave head quarters of a white ancestor’s plantation. Henrietta shared a room with her first cousin. When she was 14, they had a boy named Lawrence and a girl name Elsie. In 1941,

First, Dr. Gey decided to take Henrietta Lacks’ (who had cervical cancer) cells without informing her and then sent them to be researched. Henrietta’s cells then became one of the biggest discoveries and

Henrietta Lacks died in 1951 of cervical cancer, leaving behind a husband, five children and some cells taken from her without her permission. These cells continue to revolutionize the scientific field today and have played an integral role in some of the most important advances in medicine: cloning, chemotherapy, gene mapping, the polio vaccine and in vitro fertilization. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks answers a lot of questions regarding the Lacks family, but also poses a number of questions regarding ethics, consent and how far society is willing to go to make medical advances.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a true story of a poor, Southern African-American tobacco farmer who died in 1951 at the very young age of 31 years old from cervical cancer. Little did she know that cells harvested from her tumor, which were obtained without her consent have lived on and on and became one of the most important tools in medicine today. Despite Henrietta’s story being full of legal and ethical issues, the story was one filled with success and anguish. Success for science as her cells served as advancement in medical research and development; yet was sorrowful for Henrietta and her family. This story occurred during a time of segregation in the United States, when Henrietta Lacks believed she

Henrietta Lacks was born on August 1, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia. Henrietta’s mother passed away in 1924. She was sent to live with her grandfather. Henrietta shared a room with her first cousin David. They had their first son, Lawrence in 1935 when she was fourteen. Then they had their first daughter in 1939, Elsie, who was disabled. Henrietta and David then moved to Maryland and had three more children, David Jr., Deborah, and Joseph.

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 1951, Henrietta Lacks had cells removed from her body without her permission, since then there have been many changes in the way medical researchers get their information. For example, medical researchers today need to obtain consent from the individuals and the parents of children from whom they are performing biomedical tests on as well as an Institutional Review Board (IRB). In addition, in 1996 the United States introduced (“HIPPA Regulations”) that offer data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information. In the case of Henrietta Lacks and her HeLa cells, her rights and her privacy did not exist, so new policies and laws paved the way to help protect the rights of

Henrietta Lacks was a “mother of five who died of cervical cancer at only thirty-one years of age” (Gabbay). When she passed away the doctors at John Hopkins asked her husband,