In modern society, most depend on the opinion of a trained healthcare professional to ensure a solution to an issue. But what does one do when the patient has no understanding of the potential harm and side effects caused? Henrietta Lacks, a black woman of low social status, faced the trials of cervical cancer without providing informed consent, or the “legal rules that prescribe behaviors for physicians and other healthcare professionals.” If Lacks had not been a crusader in informed consent, then the legacy of patient awareness would not exist today. Lacks’ story takes place in Baltimore, Maryland when she checks into Johns Hopkins Hospital, to address a pain in her lower abdomen. George Otto Gey, a cancer researcher who devotes his …show more content…
They describe Henrietta as a generous, hard-working woman who is very meticulous about her physical appearance and red painted nails. These unique admirations of Henrietta’s life are ignored once she becomes a test subject. Her pain refuses to cease but doctors denote her pain until she suffers from a stomach crowded with tumors. Hey decides to repeat her radiation treatments and steal more cells which died immediately due to her body’s toxins. Gey informs Henrietta that her cells will make her immortal but she is only glad something positive comes from her suffering, ending the night of October 4, 1951. Gey still wants Henrietta’s cells regardless of her passing. During her autopsy, his assistant Mary almost collapses at the sight of Henrietta’s nail polish, realizing that Henrietta had emotions and experiences rather than just another test …show more content…
Jonas Salk test his polio vaccine. HeLa cells influence scientists to invent the process of freezing cells to be shipped worldwide. Henrietta’s cells introduced first steps toward cell cloning. In 1953, chromosomes are viewed clearly for the first time, leading to the discovery of a human’s 46 chromosomes. People began to wonder of whom those famous cells had originated. The media shared her story, but mistakenly as the name of “Helen L.” Skloot mentions that Gey allows the mistake to distract from the Henrietta’s true identity, raising suspicion that Get has something to hide. The question if HeLa cells could infect experimenters is raised by Chester Southam. By injecting prisoners from the Ohio State Penitentiary system, Southam discovers that a healthy immune system can fight cancer. However, his tests infect hundreds without their consent or knowledge introducing the significance of informed consent. The Number code was introduced and “written in response to Nazi war crimes, and stated that informed consent for research is absolutely essential.” However, The U.S. did not adopt the code because no one wanted to prevent scientific
Dr. George Otto Gey Rebecca Skloot writes in The Life of Henrietta Lacks, part two “Death” how she was able to contact the family and describes the medical research on HeLa cells. Rebecca Skloot has a hard time getting a hold of the family since trust is a big issue. To illustrate, since Henrietta Lacks cell are legendary in the medical and science community the Lacks family been bombarded with people trying to get information about Henrietta. Because of this, Rebecca, had to first gain the trust of the family before she will be able to talk to the family. Scientist and doctor used Henrietta’s cells on animals and people to study the effects of the cancer cells and gain new knowledge.
There have been many conflicts in the past in the medical field about violating patients’ privacy rights. In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, there is an issue where her cells are taken to check what she went to the hospital for, yet, her cells weren’t only checked for that. Her cells were being transported, sold, and even injected into other people for experiments without any form of consent. The Skid Row Cancer Study and the Henrietta Lacks study are similar in the way that they both have some ethical issues having to do with consent. Around the 1950’s, Dr. Perry Hudson (a medical researcher from Columbia University) wanted to perform some prostate biopsies to see who had prostate cancer in Manhattan on 1,200.
Henrietta Lacks was a thirty-one year old African American who had five kids and married her cousin David Lacks. Henrietta was diagnosed with cervical cancer, the doctors never informed Mrs. Lacks that her cells were to be tested on. The Lacks family was certainly not advised that Henrietta 's cells were growing at an incredible rate. Because of this, the cancer cells were shipped and bought across the world. The last 8 months of Henrietta’s death became a piece of history nobody would ever want to forget.
Would people in 1951 feel any different if they knew black people could produce lifesaving cures with technology? Henrietta Lacks was a black woman that got cervical cancer and went to Hopkins hospital because it was the closest segregated hospital around. While Henrietta was as Hopkins, they were doing tests and during that process, Dr. Gey took Henrietta’s cells without her consent. Henrietta was diagnosed with Cervical cancer doctors took samples without her consent. She had five kids and died at Hopkins hospital on October 4, 1951 being only 31 years old.
The HeLa cells not only survived, they grew intensely and kept right on growing as much as their given space would allow. It seemed like the cells would never stop growing, thus came the label of the immortal cells (Skloot, 2010). HeLa cells became a very important part of scientific research, and Henrietta’s name became well-known among Gey’s colleagues. On November 2, 1953, the real name behind the HeLa cells was leaked by the press, but they got it wrong, Henrietta Lakes was reported as the source of the cells in the Minneapolis Star. Gey and Dr. TeLinde, the cervical cancer specialist at John Hopkins, decided to allow their story about Henrietta to be told in a more accurate account, but they wanted to withhold her name.
Having the opportunity to discuss the impact of medical research performed on Henrietta Lacks’ cells with doctor George Guy would be an experience like no other. Through the use of Henrietta Lacks’s cells, George Guy created an industry that would fuel research throughout the scientific community. When Henrietta Lacks was admitted to the hospital for radiation treatments, doctors took samples of her cervical cancer cells. Henrietta was not informed that one of the two samples was sent to George Guy, a scientist researching the immortalization of human cells. Guy soon realized that these cells were able to grow outside of the human body, they even grew rapidly.
During the twentieth century, the word had known many unprecedented inventions and discoveries that had radically shaped our way of life. The field of discovery that touched human’s life the most, was the medical field. One of the most important achievements in science that opened the doors to many other scientific discoveries was the seccefull culture of the first human cells in laboratory. Those cells were named HeLa. HeLa cells were taken from the cervical of a black woman in Charles Hopkins hospital in Baltimore, where she went to trait cancer.
Without these cells we would not have been able to successfully or humanly learn many of the things that we know now. These cells helped teach us about diseases, how to cure/treat them, and humans as a whole. These cells provided the human genetic material we needed in order to make discoveries without harming or testing on people. Although the way these cells were cultured in the beginning was very inhumane they stopped many more dangerous or inhumane acts from being committed in the name of research. HeLa cells were the base of many discoveries that shaped our modern science and
Immortal cells from a woman who never even knew they’d been stolen from her. Henrietta Lacks would change the medical field without even knowing it. Henrietta had a family, a love life, and trials, before her unfortunate death. Henrietta was born on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke Virginia. She was born on the floor of a house that was known as the “The Home-House.”
The HeLa cell line was known to be the oldest successful cell line which has been extensively used in scientific inquiry. It became an invaluable tool in the advancement on of medical and clinical researches encompassing the development of vaccines, understanding the physiology of viruses and other infectious agents, devising developing in vitro fertilization techniques, and even in the use of genomic sequencing. Remarkable as the number of medical frontiers and research breakthroughs that were pushed and made possible by the famous immortal cells—HeLa, it has also been a great “source of anxiety, confusion and frustration for the family of the woman, Henrietta Lacks, from whom the cells were taken without consent more than 60 years ago”
Young adults need to learn material like this in school so they can recognize the impact that a cell sample can have on the world and the impact that those cells will have on families. The next time something like the HeLa cell phenomenon occurs, maybe the family members in need will receive the financial compensation they deserve. To sum up, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has the ability to make a massive impact on
In 1951, at the age of 31 Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Henrietta was under treatment at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where cells from her malignant tumor were removed. Neither Henrietta nor any of her family members knew about the tissue sample and nor did the Hopkins ever informed them of the situation. Unfortunately after Henrietta’s radiation treatment, her condition continued to worsen and soon she lost her battle to cancer on octomber 4th 1951. Henriettas cells left the Hopkins what they discovered to be known to be the first immortal human cell line.
30year old Henrietta Lacks underwent radiation treatment for cervical cancer at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore In 1951. During her treatment, George Gey the surgeon who performed the procedure removed pieces of her cervix without her knowledge and sent them to a lab. Her cells were used to develop the polio vaccine, used in the first space missions to see what would happen to human cells in zero gravity. Henrietta’s cells were the first human cells ever cloned, some of the first genes ever mapped. They have been used to create some of our most important cancer
The first direct violation of ethical principles with Lacks was the breach of autonomy. During her treatment at Johns Hopkins hospital in 1951, she had been informed her diagnosis was indeed cancer. Her
Scientists and doctors made great discoveries with the HeLa cells of Henrietta Lacks. The family of Henrietta Lacks had to live with the aftermath of decisions made by doctors and