Henrietta Lacks Case Study

In 1951, Henrietta Lacks went to John Hopkins Hospital because of pain and bleeding in her abdomen and was diagnosed with cervical cancer. During one of her radiation treatments, doctors took samples from Henrietta’s cervix without her knowledge to see if her cells would grow in culture and it did. Her cells were the first immortal cells to grow in culture. From there everything changed. Henrietta’s cells were used to create the polio vaccine, they went in space to what would happen to human cells in zero gravity, and many more. But as HeLa cells were bought, sold, and used for these scientific researches her family did not receive any money from it. Many people think that they should receive financial compensation but they should not.

In the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Henrietta the purpose of the book is to tell the story of Henrietta Lacks, her illness, and how she completely changed medicine. The speaker is the author, Rebecca Skloot a prolific freelance writer. The audience is a wide variety of readers, since the book is extremely popular and is now often taught in schools and universities. The subject is Henrietta Lacks, a woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951. and HeLa, the line of cells taken from Henrietta that were the first line of cells to reproduce and survive in the lab indefinitely.

In the year 1951, an African American woman known as Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer. Unknowingly, her cancerous cells would later be discovered as the first immortal human cells. These cells were then referred to as HeLa by Doctor Gey, who was a tissue expert at the Hopkins Hospital. Her cells were discovered as the first human cells without her ever knowing they had been removed from her body and cultured. Rebecca Skloot, a journalist, and author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks embarked on a journey to discover more about Henrietta Lacks’s struggle, pain, and efforts to get treatment. Henrietta nor her family members were ever told of the cultured cells, but would later find out and be very upset. They would be shocked

For every rule made there's a reason. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cancer, there was a tumor found in her cervix that rocketed the exploration of cancer cells. The HeLa cell, standing for Henrietta Lacks, was taken as a sample from her tumor and studied closely by George Gey. The cells were put in a test tube and grew faster than any other cell studied. Henrietta soon died and her family was left out of the loop on the amazement of Henrietta's cell. Now people from all over are wondering if it is ethical to send Lacks's cells all over the world without her family knowing. Because her family and Henrietta gave consent to the scientists to take and use samples of her tumor I believe it is ethical for people to study these cells.

From the findings, it is clear that the question of whether a person whose cell line is used for scientific research should be informed and compensated, is a very controversial subject. Every individual’s case would be different depending on the situation and lots of questions remain unanswered. Who provides the compensation? How much compensation is provided and who decides the value of it? Should everyone that has their cell line studied be compensated, or just the individuals that have discoveries made from them? If this issue became a serious concern, it would raise a lot of debate due to the various factors that are involved within the situation. As shown in Henrietta Lacks’ case, a cell line can be extremely detrimental to the survival

Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed for cervical cancer in 1951 in the black wing of John Hopkins Hospital by Doctor George Gey. At the time, Gey was searching for cells that could survive on their own in a petrie dish. He took samples from many, if not most, of his patients in hopes of finding cells that would survive on their own. His attempts were unsuccessful until he took a sample of Henrietta Lack's tumor, which managed to not only stay viable but reproduced at a rapid pace. But, there was a catch. Henrietta Lacks and her family had no idea that Gey took her cells or that he and other doctors would make billions of dollars off of her cells long after she died and left her five kids and husband to live in poverty. Skloot tells the fascinating

Nana Banfoa The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: - Reading Response 2 1. How well do you think Henrietta understood her illness? Her treatment? I don’t believe Henrietta understood her illness or treatment at all. During her time, the medical field was not even close to where it is now, meaning they might not have known the extent of it, or if they did, they probably didn’t communicate that to her because she was an African-American woman.

I can understand both sides of the story from the scientist point of view, and the Lacks family point of view. I recognize how Henrietta’s cells have made such a wonderful influence in the medical field, but I also see why her family would be very upset. I completely understand why the family would have every right to be upset because Gey did not have permission to take her cells. At the same time I see how her cells helped out so many different things. They even cured Polio with Henrietta’s cells. If Gey never took Henrietta's cells they never would have cured Polio. But in the end Im very disappointed with the fact the doctors didn't have permission and were so surreptitious. I would be more than happy to choose the scientist side if

Henrietta Lacks is woman, whose cells have been used for 63 years after her death in 1951, and will continue to be used as long as they are continue to grow. Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman who was born in the south, who married her cousin and moved up north. After giving birth to her last child, she finds that she has cancer. The doctors took a sample of her cancer cells without her permission, and now have millions of dollars but the family is still hasn’t received the money they are rightfully entitled to. Many of healthcare and entitlements that are around today, are due to the ill treatment of Henrietta and her family. Still to this day, there is very little known about Henrietta Lacks, even with the book out, and she has

The theme I have selected for my book is “...Despite one’s best effort, humanity will not always return the favor. Life is not a balanced scale; life is a dance of give and take that can leave one person on top of the world and another buried six feet under.” This theme can be linked to my poster’s slogan: “It is possible to be chained by the stories we have yet to tell,” because the chains that bound the Lacks family were the cause of the unjustness they were subjected to. The image I selected represents my slogan and the characters in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks because they felt locked up, left to rot as they wondered what had happened to their mother. The chains are the lies, the secrets, and the manipulations that the Lacks family

The thought of being an immortal may be something that mankind can never understand or figure out, after all science can only go so far. No human has ever been an immortal, as for a human’s cells that is a different story.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks focuses on many issues that Henrietta and her family have faced over the years resulting from the discovery of HeLa cells. One such issue that was recurrently present was the ethical issue of informed consent, or the lack of it, in the Lacks’ case. In the beginning when Henrietta was first being treated with radium to kill her cancerous tumor, her primary doctor, Dr. TeLinde, took a sample of the tissue and sent it to Dr. Gey, head of tissue

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.

The truth is the doctors that took Henrietta’s cells were doing it for a good cause. They didn’t do it to ruin her and her family’s life, they did it to help people and save lives. There were no laws prohibiting the taking of one’s cells, in fact in a later Supreme Court of California ruling, it was actually defended. When tissues are removed from your body, with or without consent, any claim to ownership

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