How Henrietta 's Cells Were Recovered, And Stored

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 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 was an African American woman who grew up in Clover, Virginia and was raised by her grandfather, Tommy Lacks because her mother died after giving birth to her 10th child. Henrietta worked with her cousin in the family’s tobacco farm, went to school until 6th grade, and had her first child with Day Lacks (her cousin) at the age of 14, and they got married when she was 20 years old and he was 25. After giving birth to her 5th child, Deborah, Henrietta goes

In the end, for Henrietta Lacks and her family, it was decided for them that they did not own the cells, regardless of the fact that Henrietta had no idea what was happening with her cells once they left her body. Authenticity is a huge issue in Henrietta’s case because she had no idea what was happening with her cells and that should have been presented to her. Fairness is an important consideration to be addressed, as is it fair that one person can profit off of another person’s cell, but the person’s whose cells they are would never be capable of doing anything with them. Lastly, harms versus benefits

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

After reading chapter 2, My impression of Henrietta is that she is like any other person of that time. The chapter talks about her

As an American, we are asked whether if in a car accident or inevitable death, our organs can be harvested and donated to people in need. This takes away the question of whether someone in your family should be compensated for their donation. The Lacks family, once they discovered the amount of money circulating due to the HeLa drug, believed they had a legal right to it because it was made up of their own DNA. But, if you look at is as if Henrietta had put a donor sticker on her driver’s license, no family member, that I know of, has ever asked for compensation on an organ that was donated after a serious accident. The Lacks family if they had decided to refuse the ability to study and sell the HeLa drugs could have set back scientific discoveries years with many casualties that were saved because of the medicine’s developed. Yes, the family was poor and oppressed but that was not necessarily going to change with the money given to them by the hospital. The money, of course, would have contributed them to providing them a better life, but the system is main offender, not the hospital. Many people of color faced the same challenges the Lacks family did because of the injustices present in our government and

Henrietta Lacks was a black woman that grew up in the rural segregated south; her lifespan was from 1921 to1951. She grew up on her grandfather Lacks tobacco farm after her mother died giving birth to her tenth child. From the time she was four years old, she picked, cleaned, and harvested tobacco leaves, spending little or no time in school; she had at most a 6th grade education. By the time she was fourteen, Henrietta had given birth

Henrietta Lacks was an African American women that was born Loretta Pleasant on August 1, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia. Henrietta Lacks was born unto Eliza and Johnny Pleasant. At some point in time she changed her name from Loretta to Henrietta but her family is uncertain into how. Her mother died while giving birth to her tenth child in 1924. After the passing of his late wife, Henrietta’s father felt unable to handle the children, so he took them all to Clover, Virginia. In Clover, Virginia is where her father gave the children to relatives. At the age of 4, Henrietta was sent to live with her grandfather, Tommy Lacks, in a log cabin. This log cabin that she was sent to live in with her grandfather had been the slave quarters of a white ancestor’s plantation. At this time Henrietta Lacks shared a room with her 9 year-old first cousin, David Lacks.

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

Henrietta Lacks was born in 1920 and was an African American. She grew up in Virginia and had five children. After giving birth to her last child, she was diagnosed with cancer. She underwent treatment for her cervical cancer in the Johns Hopkins Hospital. In 1951, Henrietta died. Her cells were used without her consent, and due to this I do not think she was treated fairly even though the research was important.

Her cancer had completely taken over her body. Even with her terrible death, her life brought us the gift of her immortal cells.

Racial ambiguities such as this were quite common for the time, so much, so it became known as the Jim Crowe Era. Jim Crowe defined African Americans quality of life.3 The anti-black Jim Crowe Laws were not abolished until the late-1960’s.3 Henrietta and other citizens of color were damned at birth. Society treated them as second class citizens. Under these circumstances, following in her family’s footsteps, Henrietta began to work on the tobacco plantation as a farmer.2 Then at the young age of 14, she gave birth to her first child, Lawrence, who was fathered by her cousin, Day Lacks. Four years later Henrietta had a second child, Elsie, also with her cousin Day.2 Ms. Lacks and her newly formed family continued to live in Clover until 1941 when they relocated for work; specifically, work created by the Bombing of Pearl Harbor. Historically WWII is a tragedy although in Henrietta’s time the jobs created as an effect had a positive impact on poor citizens financially.2 However, nearly a decade later she decided to go to John Hopkins hospital for treatment of a “knot” on her womb (shortly after the birth of her fifth child) where Henrietta was diagnosed with cervical cancer.2 Ms. Lacks’ cancer was treated aggressively and swiftly. Sadly, she did not survive the