Tess Bouton . 4:15 Class, Test 1. Part 1: The Medical Breakthroughs

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.

Ethical principles were not followed during the retrieval and research of Henrietta Lacks’ cells. The doctors at Johns Hopkins University took Henrietta’s cells while she was under anesthesia without her knowing or having her consent. Although many doctors were taking cells from their patients without their consent does not make taking Henrietta’s cells ethical. Researchers began using Henrietta’s cells (HeLa cells) to help make new medical discoveries such as the polio vaccine without her or her family knowing about it. After she died huge medical discoveries were made with her still living cells; some of these discoveries include cancer medications, major vaccines, and gene mapping to name a few. The family did not know about the use of her

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot is a medical biography that has forced me to question the ethics of the methods used in past scientific discoveries. HeLa cells are an immortal cell line that has been a major tool used in biological discoveries; such as the vaccine for polio, discovery of genetic diseases, cloning, and HIV and cancer treatments. Although most of the general public rarely has heard of HeLa cells, they receive the benefits of the medical research HeLa cells have been instrumental in creating. Even those who know of HeLa cells most likely did not know they originated from a poor, black, uneducated woman named Henrietta Lacks, before the release of Skloot’s biography. Lacks had a fatal case of cervical cancer

Personally since the HeLa cell line is already being used and has made so many scientific discoveries as it had, it should continue to be used to it’s full advantage, along with other tissue sample. With the Lacks family, they should receive some financial benefits from the HeLa line, especially with them, at the time of the book being written, living in poverty and not having medical insurance. As an example, in the book, Christoph Lenagauer, a researcher at John Hopkins, thought that the Lacks family should have gotten a portion of the profits and that they should be millionaires (Skloot, 267). Other cells and tissues taken without consent and that are being used to help medical research should not be thrown away. Wayne Grody of the Diagnostic Molecular Pathology Labroty at the University of California, Los Angeles stresses that the issues of consent should be applied to future samples and not past ones (Skloot,

The major ethical issue found in Skloot’s book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, was that doctors did not get informed consent before doing a procedure to a patient or using a patient’s biopsy tissue for their personal research and profit. Patients

Informed consent should be legally required Having a voice in a conversation means possessing the right or power to make a decision about something. It is shocking how people are still left in the dark not knowing what really happens to their cell, tissues, or blood after they are removed. In the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, the author tells the story about the experiences of the Lack’s family and Henrietta’s journey leading to the discovery of her immortal cells which later became known as HeLa cells. The privacy of patients should be confidential and not be shared without their written consent. Doctors’ practices on patients should be changed for several reasons, such as the safety for the privacy of the

HeLa cells have undoubtedly been a major contribution to science, so they were taken for a worthy cause, but her children were left completely clueless about their mother’s findings, and have yet to receive and compensation besides the from the sell of Skloot’s book or have yet to receive health insurance. When I was in eighth grade I remember watching an episode from the popular nighttime show 20/20. From the interview there was one thing deeply troubled me and continues to resonate in my mind. David or “Sonny” Lacks had heart issues that required him to have bypass heart surgery. The family at that time have very little income and could not afford health insurance. So the Lacks family was already struggling financially, and on top of all of the monetary issues they already have, he was struggling to come up with a way to pay for his bypass surgery. A surgery needed to save his life. The thought of this left me flabbergasted. Here is a man already struggling to get by and can’t even afford health insurance for him and his family. When HeLa cells once scraped from the cervix of his mother has developed into a multi- million dollar industry. So the questions stands, Should others be allowed to profit from HeLa cells, when in return her family received no

The doctors were uncooperative with the Lacks family, the did not fully particularize the procedure that she underwent or the effect it would have on her. Furthermore, the healthcare professionals went drastically further in violations of her rights by taking a sample of her cancer without her permission numerous on numerous accounts. This is unacceptable practices conducted by the doctors. On the other hand, these cells became the groundwork for scientists to excel, luxuriating in breakthroughs achieved. The “Hela cells” contributed a variety of science fields from a vaccine for the polio virus, cloning, and gene mapping all comes through the use of her cells. Decades after her death the cells are still being used, her accomplishments in the field were relatively unknown till a student wrote this book. Henrietta Lacks never received the recognition for her helps in the achievement of the advancement of science, however, for a feat of this size one should receive glorification. For a student to have gone out of her way for someone they barely know, above all is unbelievably heart warming. This book shows us the unethical way that doctors practiced, but it turned out to better humanity, then left to examine this struggle to generate their own presupposition. The cells taken from her, furthermore, her family never received financial support. Consequently, this should not bother anyone at

In 1951, Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer at John Hopkins and while under anesthesia, two pieces of cervical tissue were taken without her consent for medical research. Using the cells from Lack’s Tumor, Doctor George Gey, created the first “immortal” cell line called “Hela”. These cells are to this day the world’s most commonly used human cell. Now the main issue of this case was that Lacks had no idea that they took some of her tissue and neither did her family. Her family didn’t learn anything about the use of her cells for over 20 years. In 2010, author Rebecca Skloot wrote a book titled “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, that focused on how the research establishment treated Lacks family. It was seen as unethical of the research establishment not to have asked permission or at least informed her family about the use of Lack’s cells. We see in this case a lack of informed consent. Should the family have a right of ownership on Lacks cells? Should they also profit from

She never signed a consent form that said she agreed for the John Hopkins hospital to use her cells. Moreover, even if it was for a good cause, maybe she wouldn’t have agreed for them to use her cells so other people can profit off them. Throughout a long period of time Henrietta wasn’t getting the recognition she should have gotten. To make things right today, her family should receive some compensation since she’s not alive to receive anything for it. Some of her family are still living in Virginia in those broken down shacks, the least they can do is make sure the family receives adequate health care if they need it. If HELA cells did so much for large amounts of people, the least they can do is give a little back to her

We had to read a book that was written about the HeLa cells and all that they have done. The title of the book is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and was written by Rebecca Skloot. The cells that were taken from (He)nrietta (La)cks are so special because they were the first human cells ever grown in culture that were immortal. They never die, and they reproduce at great speeds. HeLa cells helped aid the progression of gene mapping, vaccines for various of diseases and also replaced the use of animals in some cosmetics

Many people take an advantage from this invention. They used HeLa cells to find a new innovation in science and received a lot of money from using HeLa cells. On the other hand,

By using HeLa to his advantage, he gave sick people injections of her cells to see how they would react. Following the same pattern as the doctors did at John Hopkins, these patients had not idea that he was injecting them with cancerous cells. From there, he went on to test it on healthy people, more specifically, an Ohio prison’s inmates. These men were known to volunteer for anything, since they really didn’t have much to contribute to society anyways. However, they never really knew was what happening to them. Therefore, the results compiled, just like Henrietta’s, were a violation to the medical code. It turns out, that Southman had injected over 600 people with HeLa cells for his research. But some people did not see Southman in the wrong, or any other doctor violating the medical code during this time, because there really was no formal research oversight in the United States during the 1950s. The only want to enforce research ethics was in civil courts. However, a few years later, the National Institute of Health conducted an investigation on research trials and found that only nine out of fifty two had a policy set in place to protect the rights of research

The cells were kept alive long enough to allow the researchers to go in depth with studies and examinations. The ethical issue was, like stated before, that the Lacks family did not give physicians permission to take samples of her cells. But during that time permission was not required and that is why they were able to take the samples. In the court case of California v. Regents of UC in 1990 it was ruled that a person’s discarded tissue was not their property and could be used. The ethical concerns are still around today because recently researchers published their results and this affected the family. Things like lack of respect for the Lacks, just and even race and social class come into the conversation because of the use of her tissue without her consent.

“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.