What the scientists are doing is morally right because the contributions their studies are making to medicine are worth giving up a few cells.
Through scientific research and fusion of cells, two British scientists named John Watkins and Henry Harris made an interesting discovery. They found that by fusing HeLa cells with deactivated chicken cells (ones that could no longer split and reproduce) they could somehow bring the chicken cells back to life. This showed a link between cells and genes, meaning they could possibly find a way to “turn disease genes off.” (Immortal Life of Henrietta) Doing so could save thousands of lives before the first signs and symptoms even show.
Cell fusion has also contributed greatly to the research of cancer cures. Scientists in Europe and North America fused cells and made the first ever “monoclonal antibodies.” (Immortal Life of Henrietta) A monoclonal antibody is, by definition, “A laboratory-produced molecule that's carefully engineered to attach to specific defects in your cancer cells.” The main purposes of these proteins were to make the cancer cells easier for the immune system to detect, deliver radiation to the cells, and to block growth of the cells. (Mayoclinic) Later, they were used to create a cancer treatment called Herceptin, and to make blood transfusions safer. (Immortal Life of Henrietta)
…show more content…
In 1965 when cell fusion first began, people were horrified, and we're scared that Harris and Watkins would create human-animal hybrids, like the “mapes” (man slash ape hybrids) that Harris described. He did however say that this was taken out of context, and that “[they were] just creating cells, not trying to produce centaurs.” (The Immortal Life of
Henrietta was discovered to have HeLa cells. These cells were cells that created an immortal cell line. They grew and reproduced like wildfire giving humans a limitless supply of human cells for which they could experiment on. These cells were used in labs across the globe and were used in some lifesaving medical discoveries. These cells were obviously an amazing discovery However there was one major problem with this. Henrietta’s family was completely unknowing of this or even knowing Henrietta’s cells were being used for a long time.
In 1951, a poor black woman named Henrietta Lacks, made one of the greatest medical contributions ever. Her cells, which were taken from her cervical-cancer biopsy, became the first immortal human cell line. The cells are able to reproduce infinitely in a lab. Although other immortal lines have since been developed, Lacks's "HeLa" cells are the standard in labs around the world today. Together they outweigh 100 Empire State Buildings and could circle the equator three times. Science Reporter, Rebecca Skloot's wrote the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which tells the story behind the woman who transformed modern medicine. Here are just a few contribution Henrietta Lacks’s cells had made for science.
The woman commonly known as Henrietta Lacks is a woman who's cells were unrightfully used by scientists for their own benefit. Although her cells have caused great achievements and scientific discoveries in science she was never credited for her unauthorized donation of cells. Henrietta Lacks might not even be her real name, and because of this the cells have been referred to as the HeLa cells. Consent has always been a major issue in scientific discovery and scientific testing, but no one specifically gave the scientists promotion to remove cells from Henrietta Lacks dead body.
Rebecca Skloot is a scientific journalist who first heard the name ‘Henrietta Lacks’ in a college classroom in the 1980s, when she was a teenager. Henrietta was a black American woman who died of cancer in 1951 at age 31. Before she died, a sample was taken from her tumor, without her knowledge or consent, and used for medical research. The cells in Henrietta’s tissue sample, known as HeLa (pronounced hee-lah) were the first human cells to survive in culture – they not only survived, but thrived and multiplied. Consequently, HeLa cells have since been used in scientific research all over the world, and have played a fundamental role in numerous medical advances and developments.
Henrietta Lacks died, not knowing that her cells would live forever; leading to a medical revolution and multimillion-dollar industry. Lacks was a black tobacco farmer from southern Virginia, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer at 30 years of age. However unbeknownst to the Lacks family, her medical struggles would lead to the breakthrough of several diseases. These cells formed what’s known today as the HeLa line and remains active today. A doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital took a piece of her tumor and sold these cells to several scientists across the world without her consent. Although she passed away in 1951, Lacks cells continued to help, by developing the polio vaccine and were fundamental in cloning testable content. Lacks family
The profound discovery of HeLa cells leads to the world’s obsession with immortality and life, while simultaneously disconnecting HeLa cells from their human roots and the life of Henrietta Lacks. Although the book is composed of many intertwining stories, Skloot’s main story is the life of the Lacks family as Skloot intends remind readers that these exploited cells came from a human. The ancillary stories in the book, including the stories of the vast medical research done using HeLa cells, only enhance the poignancy of Henrietta’s story. Using the knowledge of Henrietta’s relatives and friends, Skloot weaves together their experiences and opinions to create the main story while also providing the readers with a detailed insight of Henrietta’s
Scientists would save millions of dollars using Henrietta’s immortal cells, rather than using cells from
Do immortal cells exist? Loretta Pleasant, better known as Henrietta Lacks was an African American female born on August 1, 1920. She spent almost most of her childhood and early teenage years in Roanoke, Virginia. At the age of fifteen, Henrietta married David Lacks and moved to Baltimore, Maryland. Together, they had five children. Their children were named, Deborah, David Jr., Lawrence, Elsie, and Joseph Lacks.
Henrietta Lacks, a simple tobacco farmer, wife and mother of five, is seemingly unknown around the world, yet her cells have created medical history. Her cells were taken without her or her family’s knowledge, yet those cells are considered the cornerstone of medicine (MrDovekeeper). Even though some people argue that scientists would have figured how to fight deadly viruses and learn about the human cell and how it works without her cells, Henrietta Lacks ' cells have changed the world by helping scientists figure all this out.
The HeLa cells are the first immortal cell lines. Immortal cell lines are not like other cells. These cells don’t die of old age. Immortal cells are important because these cells grow indefinitely and they survive and grow by dividing. This allows scientists to research more productively. HeLa cells are used for many researches to cure diseases and develop new drugs. With HeLa cells scientists did many researches and it led to breakthroughs in the study of leukemia, influenza, hemophilia, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, AIDS, and more. It became one of the important tools in medicine. These improvements in diseases saved lives of many people. HeLa cells are coming from an African American female from Baltimore. HeLa cells are taken from Henrietta Lacks’ cervix
It’s insane that nobody would even know the name Henrietta Lacks if I mentioned her name, not even the contribution HeLa Cells has made for society since she has died.
A. The main concern is whether individuals have legal ownership of the cells that are extracted from their bodies and used for research. Should people who donated their cells be compensated for the findings based off them? To what extent do people have control and benefits from donating their cells to science? Who has the right to have access to other people’s cells and for what purposes will they be justified and legal?
In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks scientists from around the world discovered that a virus can quickly infect a cell. Step by step, and with more thorough and detailed research on the HeLa cell and how it came to be in many of the test cells, scientists incidentally confirmed that a virus will pierce a cell’s membrane to inject its own DNA into a cell: corrupting it and destroying the original cell (Research Areas). If it were not for the “HeLa Bomb” (Skloot), the field of Biology would be tethered in the past with detection, analysis and disruption of the cycle of viral
In 1951, the first immortal cell line was created by a doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital using tissue samples taken from a young, black woman named Henrietta Lacks. Her cells would come to be known as HeLa cells, and for a very long time, the owner of these cells was a mystery; even her family did not know about them. For years to come, her cells would be used in many important medical and scientific advancements. Over that time, HeLa cells would prove to be instrumental in developing a polio vaccine, gene mapping, and in vitro fertilization. They would even be sent to space to see how cells would react in zero gravity.
God created everything good and men’s efforts towards creativity by using technology makes it better. Tissue culture is the technique that involves removal of cells, tissues or organs from the animal or plant and their subsequent placement in to an artificial environment suitable for their growth, which mimic the in-vivo environment from which it derived. In culture, cancer cells can grow indefinitely, if they have continuous supply of nutrients and environmental conditions and thus it called “immortal”, and cells from this tissue called cell line (Skloot,5). One of the important things that revolutionize the medical field was HeLa cell line derived from cervical cancer cells of Henrietta Lacks a black African-American woman died at 12:15 a.m. on October 4, 1951(Skloot,86). Dr. Wharton had shaved a dime sized tissue from her cervical tumor and that tissue was given to the Dr. George Gey who was the head of tissue-culture research at Johns Hopkins Hospital (Skloot,33). George was a first person who developed the technique to grow HeLa cells form cervical tissue of Henrietta Lacks in his lab and given the name HeLa after the first two initials of Henrietta’s first and last names (Skloot,37).