Question

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance.

How did reading this book change your view of medical research and the ethics of using tissue obtained from patients with diseases?

Answer 1

Changes of medical view as my view point, Henrietta Lacks was an afrIcan-american women . After reading the story of her, i felt shocked that how she sacrifice herself. From her body the first immortalised human cell line was made which was named later as HeLa cell line. After knowing the fact that the cell line was made from human it chaged the whole medical field. After given birth to fifth children she was diagnosed as cervical cancer At johns hopkins hospital ,1951 but without consenting from her tissue from the tumor taken and cultured . George otto gey,who was the reseracber first identified that the cell have a unique property of reproduce a huge number of cell without dying.....from there the HeLa cell line is formed...

Around 1954-55, the first successful revolutionary medical research was done by invention of polio vaccine from using HeLa cell line by jonas salk. First cloned by 1955. From that time researcher have not see back , as this cell line is being formed. A large number of tests were being done using HeLa cell line(viral culture,AIDS,gene maping,human sensitivity testing)

According to my view it was a miracle in medical research .

View on the medical ethics--

Thi story created big questions about medical ethics and right to Human.

Firstly, violetion of taking consent .. when the tumor cell is being collected from her body why George gey didn't take the consent.and also why is not being told that the cancer therapy will lead her to be infertile. Benevolent deception was done with her.

Secondly,is not the family of Henrietta get the compensation for for the cell line. Henrietta was treated with unethical and Biased treatment

Not only for these case, only there are other example also which shows that most of the study did with uneducated people. example like tuskegee syphilis study, mississipi appendectomy all were done on uneducated people without taking consent or without concerning them..

According to this story it changed my view in a broad way . Equality should be maintained in all kind of people and give the patients the proper human rights.