Case Study Report on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

A Case Study Report

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

In

Bio 228: Virology

Presented to

Prof. Rey Tantiado

Biological Science Instructor

Submitted by

Louregine Navarra

BS Biology (Premed)

January 2015

Background of the Story:

Rebecca first became interested in Henrietta’s story when a

biology instructor told the story of how this unknown woman’s

cells were used to create the first immortal line of cells used

for medical research. Her growing interest in Henrietta resulted

in the decision to write a book. The next ten years or Rebecca’s

life were spent working with the Lacks family to uncover the true

identity of Henrietta Lacks — a task that led her to re-examine

her understanding of race, faith, science, and ethics.

It all started when Henrietta Lacks went to the Johns

Hopkins University hospital to examine a “knot on her womb” that

had given her pain for the last year. Dr. Howard Jones took a

sample of a shiny, nickel-sized purple lump on Henrietta’s cervix

and sent it to the lab for testing. He noted that there had been

no abnormalities observed four months earlier when she had

delivered a baby, nor when she had come in for a follow-up six

weeks later.

Henrietta Lacks was born as Loretta Pleasant on August 1,

1920 in Roanoke, Virginia. Her mother died in childbirth four

years later and Henrietta’s father moved the family to Clover,

Virginia where she lived with her grandfather. Growing up in the

same house was David “Day” Lacks, Henrietta’s cousin, with whom

she ended up falling in love. They had their first child together

when Henrietta was 14 years old and their second when she was 18,

though they did not marry until 1941. The couple moved to Turners

Station just outside of Baltimore, Maryland when World War II

broke out so that Day could work at the Sparrows Point steel

mill.

Dr. Richard TeLinde was one of the leading researchers of

cervical cancer in the 1950s, and he had been working with Dr.

George Gey to grow cancerous cervical tissues in a lab for quite

awhile. When Henrietta went to Johns Hopkins for the treatment of

her malignant tumor, the surgeon removed healthy and cancerous

cervical tissue samples for Dr. Gey before putting tubes of

radium into her cervix as treatment. Henrietta never knew about

the samples.

In 1951, no one had successfully grown cells outside of the

body. One of the problems was finding a suitable culture medium

— chicken plasma, human umbilical cord blood, and calf fetuses

were only some of the materials being used. Another problem was

also inadequate sterilization processes,which led to culture

contamination. Although Dr. Gey was adamant about paying keen

attention to proper sterilization his own labs, he still couldn’t

grow cells. That is until Henrietta’s cancerous cells, renamed

HeLa, came along.

As HeLa grew, so did Henrietta’s cancer. She tried to keep

up a normal life by going dancing, traveling to Clover on the

weekends, and visiting her mentally disabled daughter at

Crownsville State Hospital. Life was hard for her, however, with

the x-ray cancer treatments turning the skin of her torso black

and the radium tubes making her infertile. No one had told her

any of the side effects of her treatments.

Rebecca realized that the only way to tell Henrietta’s story

was to get the cooperation of the Lacks family. She calls Dr.

Roland Pattillo for help, but he is hesitant to help her contact

the family until she makes it clear that she is aware of the how

African Americans have been medically mistreated over the years.

He eventually gives Rebecca the number of Henrietta’s sole

surviving daughter, Deborah.

Things seem to go well during Rebecca’s first call with

Deborah, who is rather incoherent but excited about the prospect

of a book about her mother. The second call, however, does not go

well at all and Deborah tells Rebecca to “convince the men” that

the family should cooperate on the book. A call to Day only

results in a hang up.

When Dr. Gey revealed that he had created an “immortal” cell

line, there was very little interest due to decades of false

reports about similar accomplishments. The most famous was in

1912 when Alexis Carrel claimed to have developed an immortal

chicken heart cell culture. Not only did the culture end up being

bogus, Carrel turned out to be a racist Nazi supporter.

Henrietta’s doctors deemed her treatments a success and the

cancer gone despite her continued pain. It was an era when

doctors always knew best, especially when the patient was an

African-American woman, and it was quite a while before they

examined Henrietta more carefully. By that time there was a huge,

inoperable tumor in Henrietta’s abdomen that spread so rapidly

that it seemed like a new tumor grew every day. The doctors

increased her radiation therapy and eventually hospitalized her,

but the pain grew worse and worse.

In the present day, Rebecca travels to Baltimore with the

hopes of interviewing Sonny, one of Henrietta and Day’s sons, but

he doesn’t return her calls. She goes to Turners Station to talk

with Courtney Speed, who has tried to create a Henrietta Lacks

museum, but she won’t talk to Rebecca without the family’s

blessing. Instead, Speed shows Rebecca an old BBC documentary

about Henrietta and HeLa, which gives Rebecca the idea to go to

Clover and interview the extended Lacks family.

Rebecca visits Clover, VA to meet the extended Lacks family.

She finds that the town has almost completely disappeared, but

that “Lacks Town” is still home to quite a few family members.

The most forthcoming of the Clover Lackses is Cootie, Henrietta’s

cousin. After talking to him, it is clear to Rebecca that there

has been a lot of confusion over the immortality of Henrietta’s

cells. Cootie believes that they were created through voodoo.

Although Day originally refused to allow the Johns Hopkins

doctors to do an autopsy, he consented after Dr. Gey said that

the tissue samples could help his children someday. Mary Kubicek,

Gey’s assistant, was in charge of taking those samples. Seeing

Henrietta’s chipped toenail polish was the first time that it

dawned on her that HeLa came from a real person; she had always

thought of the tissue samples in the abstract.

Because HeLa was so hearty and easy to grow, it quickly

became the “workhorse” for cell research. The Tuskegee Institute

built the first cell production factory using HeLa and grew

around 20,000 test tubes of cells a week. They would send samples

to any interested scientist for about $10 each. As the cell

culture industry began to take off, researchers developed

standardized methods for working with HeLa and made great medical

and scientific advancements using the cells for experimentation.

It wasn’t until Microbiological Associates launched the first

large scale for-profit cell distribution center, however, that

cell and tissue culture became a multibillion dollar industry.

Once word got out about HeLa, the press wanted to do stories

on the woman behind the cells. Dr. Gey and Johns Hopkins did not

want to reveal Henrietta’s name because doctor-patient

confidentiality was beginning to be a standard practice.

Eventually a Collier’s Magazine reporter got Gey to tell the

story on the condition that the donor be called Helen L. In the

article Gey also said that he had taken tissue samples after the

patient’s death, not before.

When Henrietta died, Sonny was four, Deborah two, and Joe

only one year old. Lawrence was a teenager, but he dropped out of

school and joined the army, which took him away from home for two

years. The younger children found themselves at the mercy of

Ethel and Galen, Henrietta’s cousins who moved into Day’s house

to help with the children. Ethel severely beat the children and

Galen sexually molested Deborah. It wasn’t until 1959 when

Lawrence returned and moved in with Bobbette that anybody did

anything about the abuse. Bobbette moved the children to her

house and told Ethel and Galen never to touch the children again.

Rebecca visits another Clover cousin named Cliff on the

advice of Cootie. Cliff shows her the ruins of the old home-house

where Henrietta grew up and Henrietta’s mother’s grave.

Henrietta’s grave is unmarked. He explains that all of the black

Lackses are descended from two white plantation owners —

brothers named Albert and Benjamin Lacks.

After her visit to the Lacks graveyard, Rebecca interviews

one of the white Lacks families, but they deny any relation to

the black Lackses. Gladys, Henrietta’s sister, tells Rebecca that

the white and black Lackses are related, however, even if they

don’t mix much.

During the early 1960s, researchers began to fear that HeLa

had contaminated other cells studied in their labs. They decided

to reform their methods for handling cells and create a

collection of known cell lines to use as reference when

determining whether a cell culture has been contaminated.

While the science world was dealing with HeLa-related

problems, Henrietta’s children were struggling to find their

place in the world. Lawrence and Sonny were doing fine, but

Deborah got pregnant when she was 16. Bobbette helped her finish

high school and even helped her leave Cheetah, her abusive

husband, when the time came. Joe, the youngest of the siblings

was filled with anger and ran into the most trouble. After being

discharged from the army for “failure to adjust,” he killed a man

in Baltimore for which he was sentenced to 15 years in jail.

While he was doing his time, Joe converted to Islam and changed

his name to Zakariyya.

In 1966, a geneticist determined that HeLa cells were found

in 18 cell lines commonly used for medical research. The

widespread contamination invalidated years of work and supposed

scientific advancement, especially in cancer research. Scientists

started research to identify HeLa cells so that they could better

determine whether or not a cell line was contaminated.

Henrietta’s name first became public after George Gey died

of pancreatic cancer and his colleagues went through his notes to

write an article about HeLa in his honor. Others did not catch on

for some time, however, and most articles still referred to the

donor as Helen Lane for a few more years. It was not until a

premier research journal published an article in 1973 proclaiming

the real name of the woman whose cells gave birth to HeLa that

Henrietta Lacks became famous.

Michael Rogers wrote an article for Rolling Stone magazine

about Henrietta and HeLa in 1975. When he interviewed the family,

he tried to explain to them that the “immortality” of the cells

did not mean that they were immortal or that they would get

Henrietta’s cancer. The Lackses were still confused over the

cells, but they did understand that people had made a lot of

money selling them.

While her brothers became obsessed with getting their fair

share of HeLa proceeds, Deborah tried to learn more about her

mother. She researched HeLa, but did not understand most of what

she read. She became convinced that her mother felt everything

that was done to her cells, something that disturbed Deborah to

the core.

The early 1980s saw the Lacks family in worse times than

ever before. Zakariyya had finished his prison term, but still

couldn’t hold down a job. Ironically, the only way he could make

money was to serve as a medical research subject. Sonny landed in

jail for trafficking drugs. Deborah’s son, Alfred, was constantly

in and out of jail for minor offenses. Only Deborah seemed to be

doing better — remarried to a seemingly good man and working

various jobs.

Deborah still continued to research her mother’s life,

death, and “immortality.” One of the books that she found,

though, provided in depth information about her mother’s medical

history. Such detail could only have come from Henrietta’s

medical records, and Deborah wondered how the author could have

gotten a hold of them.

By the late 1990s, Henrietta’s story was becoming

increasingly well-known. The BBC made a documentary about her,

Raymond Pattillo organized the first annual HeLa Cancer Control

Symposium, and Courtney Speed and Barbara Wyche tried to found a

museum in Turners Station honoring Henrietta. The Lacks siblings

were proud of the recognition their mother was receiving but were

resentful that they still couldn’t afford their own healthcare.

Johns Hopkins continued to take the stand that their medical

practices regarding Henrietta were consistent with those of the

time and that they had never received any profits from the sale

of HeLa.

Adding to the family’s confusion during this time was Sir

Lord Keenan Kester Colfield, a con man who tried to get the

Lackses to release Henrietta’s medical records to him. Johns

Hopkins identified the con and protected the Lacks family, which

led Colfield to sue the hospital and the family. The fallout from

the lawsuit was that Johns Hopkins cancelled plans to honor

Henrietta and Deborah had a nervous breakdown.

Deborah takes Rebecca to meet the volatile Zakariyya,

something that Rebecca knows must happen but is terrified to do.

Zakariyya has a few outbursts but generally controls his temper.

He explains that he is resentful that the doctors took

Henrietta’s cells and then used them to help everyone except the

Lacks family. Although Deborah blames Ethel’s abuse for

Zakariyya’s anger problems, he believes that fighting the tumor

while he was in Henrietta’s womb made him so mean.

Rebecca takes Deborah and Zakariyya to Cristoph Lengauer’s

lab in Johns Hopkins where he shows them HeLa cells. He also

gives them a long overdue explanation of how the cells are grown

and used, and what it means when everyone says that Henrietta’s

cells are “immortal.” The visit does a lot to clear up decades of

misunderstandings, and both Deborah and Zakariyya are emotionally

thankful.

The night that Deborah gives Rebecca the medical records

turns out to be a long and volatile one. Soon after giving

Rebecca the papers, Deborah comes back and demands that they go

through everything together. She accuses Rebecca of being paid to

take records and hurls other insults as well. When Rebecca

finally yells back at Deborah, the tension is broken and Deborah

opens up again. The next day Deborah appears covered in hives,

but trying to make things right with a hesitant Rebecca.

Although Deborah returns to Baltimore to get medical

attention for her hives, Rebecca stays in Clover to talk to one

of the cousins about the prayer session. He explains to her that

he and most of the Lacks family believe that HeLa is the

spiritual body of Henrietta. He points to certain passages in the

Bible that helps Rebecca understand how religious explanations of

HeLa would make more sense to them than the scientific

explanations.

Deborah’s doctor tells her that her blood pressure and blood

sugar are too high, and that she needs to reduce her stress

levels. This explains the erratic behavior during the trip to

Clover. Since Deborah can’t go on anymore research trips, Rebecca

keeps her posted on developments, though she is sure to only

mention the good things. Deborah seems to be in higher spirits

and eager to learn about the science behind the HeLa cells. Lack

of money and a stroke keep Deborah from going forward with her

plans for self betterment. Rebecca observes that Henrietta’s

children won’t benefit from HeLa, but that it is not too late for

the grandchildren and other future generations of Lackses.

It is 2009 Rebecca has finally finished the book and wants

to read it to Deborah. After numerous calls that went unreturned,

Rebecca calls Sonny and learns that Deborah died a little over a

week earlier. It is a great blow to Rebecca, but she is knows

that Deborah was happy in the end. Although the older Lacks

family members were still struggling, the grandchildren were all

doing well. Rebecca remembers her last meeting with Deborah, who

said that she would like to die calmly and maybe come back as a

HeLa cell like her mother and do some good for the world.

Rebecca believes that there are two major issues regarding

research using human tissue: money and consent. There is a lot of

debate around whether doctors have to tell patients how much

their tissues could be worth, and whether the patients have

rights to any profits. And although there are numerous

regulations requiring that patients give informed consent for

their tissues to be used in research, tissue rights advocates

want patients to have more control.

Virology Concepts:

1. From your observations, what went wrong in Henrietta Lacks’ cervical cancer cells

that made them cancerous?

Research into HPV eventually uncovered how Henrietta’s

cancer started: HPV inserted its DNA into the long arm of her

eleventh chromosome and essentially turned off her p53 tumor

suppressor gene (Skloot, 2009).

2. How does infection with human papilloma virus (HPV) increase the risk of cervical

cancer? What cellular process is affected by this virus?

When a woman is exposed to genital human papillomavirus

(HPV), her immune system usually prevents the virus from doing

serious harm. But in a small number of women, the virus survives

for years. Eventually, the virus can lead to the conversion of

normal cells on the surface of the cervix into cancerous cells.

At first, cells may only show signs of a viral infection.

Eventually, the cells may develop precancerous changes. This is

known as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, which usually goes

away spontaneously. In some cases, however, cervical

intraepithelial neoplasia may progress to invasive cervical

cancer (Division of STD Prevention, 1999). HPV inserts its DNA

into the DNA of the host cell, where it produces proteins that

lead to cancer (Boshart, 1984).

3. What was the theory of spontaneous transformation? What significance did Gartler’s

findings have for this theory? Why was this report referred to as the “HeLa Bomb”?

Spontaneous transformation is a phenomenon where a normal

cell growing in culture becomes malignant (Skloot, 2009).

Gartler’s findings that normal cells didn’t spontaneously become

cancerous and that they were simply taken over by HeLa meant that

spontaneous transformation does not exist.

The report was called HeLa Bomb because the information that

Gartler shared was like someone dropping a bomb, it surprised

everyone and changed a lot. It changed the lives of many people,

especially the scientists who happened to have HeLa infected cell

lines. Gartler figured out that all the cell lines had one thing

in common. They all had a rare genetic marker called G6PD-A. He

knew that they were all contaminated by HeLa because G6PD-A was

only found in African Americans. HeLa was kind of like a virus.

It could easily contaminate cell cultures with one of its cells.

It could travel through the air on dust particles and then

contaminate a whole cell culture with just ONE CELL. This caused

a huge problem for researchers because HeLa was all around and

could infect any cell culture that they made. Gartler's talk also

disproved spontaneous transformation (Skloot, 2011).

4. What is the difference between epidermoid carcinoma and adenocarcinoma? Would

a correct diagnosis have changed the way Henrietta Lacks was treated? Why was HeLa

contamination a problem for research seeking a cancer virus?

Adenocarcinoma rises from the glandular cells (within the

tissue), whereas squamous cell rises from the epithelial cells

(on the surface). Adenocarcinoma can therefore "hide" deeper in

the cells and is easier to miss on routine pap tests, so most

docs tend to be more "aggressive" with treatments. Most cervical

cancers are squamous cell, although adenocarcinoma seems to be

getting diagnosed a bit more frequently of late (Hyster Sisters,

2014).

‘According to Howard Jones and other gynecologic oncologists

I talked with, the correct diagnosis wouldn’t have changed the

way Henrietta’s cancer was treated. By 1951, at least twelve

studies had found that cervical adenocarcinomas and epidermoid

carcinomas responded the same to radiation, which was the

treatment of choice for both types’ (Skloot, 2009).

“The serious problem of HeLa cell contamination in cancer

and vaccine research is revealed in Michael Gold’s A Conspiracy

of Cells: One Woman’s Immortal Legacy and the Medical Scandal It

Caused. Even Jonas Salk, who developed the legendary Salk polio

vaccine, was fooled when HeLa cells contaminated his animal cell

lines. He admitted this year’s later in 1978 before a stunned

audience of cell biologists and vaccine makers. In experiments

performed in the late 1950s on dying cancer patients, Salk tried

injecting them with a cell line of monkey heart tissue – the same

cell line he used to harvest polio virus for his famous vaccine.

He hoped the monkey cell injections would stimulate the immune

system to fight cancer. However, when abcesses developed at the

site of injections Salk began to suspect that he might be

injecting HeLa cells rather than monkey cells, and he stopped the

experiment. Mark Nelson-Rees, a HeLa cell expert and one of the

1978 conference attendees, offered to test Salk’s line if it was

still available. Salk graciously agreed and the monkey cells

indeed proved to be HeLa cells which had invaded and taken over

the monkey cell line. According to author Gold, Salk thought

there were adequate ways to separate viruses from the tissue cell

lines they were harvested in, so that it really didn’t matter

what kind of cells were used. Even if vaccines weren’t filtered,

and even if whole cancer cells were injected directly into a

human, Salk believed they would be rejected by the body and cause

no harm. In those days doctors didn’t much believe in cancer-

causing viruses. Nowadays, no researcher would dare try injecting

cancer cells into a human being. But in the 1950s Salk had done

it accidently. He had injected HeLa cells into a few dozen

patients and it hadn’t bothered him a bit” (Cantwell, 1973).

5. If HeLa cells are cancer cells, how are they useful for research into anything other

than cancer, like vaccine production?

Since the ’50s, if researchers wanted to figure out how

cells behaved in a certain environment, or reacted to a specific

chemical, or produced a certain protein, they turned to HeLa

cells. They did that because, despite being cancerous, HeLa still

shared many basic characteristics with normal cells: They

produced proteins and communicated with one another like normal

cells, they divided and generated energy, they expressed genes

and regulated them, and they were susceptible to infections,

which made them an optimal tool for synthesizing and studying any

number of things in culture, including bacteria, hormones,

proteins, and especially viruses (Skloot, 2011).

Viruses reproduce by injecting bits of their genetic

material into a living cell, essentially reprogramming the cell

so it reproduces the virus instead of itself. When it came to

growing viruses—as with many other things—the fact that HeLa was

malignant just made it more useful. HeLa cells grew much faster

than normal cells, and therefore produced results faster. HeLa is

a workhorse: It’s hardy, it’s inexpensive, and it’s everywhere.

Today, it’s even possible for scientists to genetically alter

HeLa cells to make them behave like other cells—a heart cell, for

example. So being cancer cells isn’t the limitation most expect

that it would be, though there are some things you definitely

wouldn’t use HeLa cells for, including any vaccine creation,

since you wouldn’t want to inject cancer cells along with a

vaccine (Skloot, 2011).

6. What role do telomeres play in determining how many times a cell can divide? What

is the Hayflick Limit?

There was a string of DNA at the end of each chromosome

called a telomere, which shortened a tiny bit each time a cell

divided, like time ticking off a clock. As normal cells go

through life, their telomeres shorten with each division until

they’re almost gone. Then they stop dividing and begin to die

(Morin, 1989). The number of times normal can divide is a

specific number called the Hayflick Limit (Hayflick, 1965).

Personal Reflections:

1. Should individuals receive financial compensation if their tissues are employed to

develop a biological product, or should that go to the person who developed the

product?

I believe that the individual whose tissues were employed to

develop a biological product should receive financial

compensation because it was them who gave out the raw materials.

But then, I also believe that more of the profit should be earned

by the person who developed the product because they were the

ones who worked hard to invent or produce it.

2. If your blood had been used to create a new vaccine, would you be satisfied knowing

that others would benefit from your contribution, or would you feel that you should be

financially rewarded? How much do you think you should get, and how much should

the developers get?

If ever a scientist or researcher used my blood to create a

vaccine and was successful in doing so, I would of course feel

that I should be financially rewarded. Though I am honest enough

to say I did not spend a single cent or nickel to make that

vaccine happen, the developers should be responsible enough in

rewarding me financially because I was a very important resource.

If it were not for my blood, that vaccine wouldn’t exist. Well of

course it wouldn’t exist for now but I know they’d be able to

find a new donor. But at least, I want them to honor me or

something like that.

3. Were the consequences of increased recognition of Henrietta Lacks positive or

negative for the Lacks family? Explain.

In a way, the increased recognition of Henrietta Lacks was

both positive and negative for the Lacks family. Positive because

the Lacks were able to learn things about Henrietta that they

didn’t know. They were able to understand what happened to her

while she was sick and if her disease would also materialize in

her family. Also, they learned about Elsie, Hanrietta’s eldest

daughter who was epileptic. If it were not for the increased

recognition Henrietta got, the Lacks family would even have

forgotten about Henrietta already and they wouldn’t realize how

much her cancer cells had contributed in the field of medicine

and other sciences.

The negative consequence however was drastic. The increased

recognition led into confusions of the family member and

miscommunication with the researchers. The Lacks family had a

hard time distinguishing articles from fiction to reality, it

caused them paranoia, anger, anxiety, and fear. The researchers

wanted samples of blood from Hanreitta’s husband and from all

their children so they could do DNA analyses. The Lacks family

thought they were being tested to see if they have the same

cancer Hanreitta had. Researchers never explained it to them,

they know nothing. When called in for more blood samples, Deborah

assumed that she had cancer like her mother or possibly that the

doctors were going to give her cancer. It caused chaos in the

Lacks family. A pretend doctor-lawyer named Cofield approached

them and made them believe he was going to help them but he was

actually all for the money. He gave Deborah a hard time as well

as the other members of the family. He gave them false hope.

4. Zakariyya commented, “Only people that can get any good from my mother cells is

the people that got money, and whoever selling them cells – they get rich off our

mother and we got nothing.” Do you think this statement is correct? What should the

Lacks family get?

I think what Zakariyya said was true. They deserve better.

They deserve to be rewarded financially for what the cells of

their mother helped make; the polio vaccine, chemotherapy,

cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, it helped develop

drugs for treating herpes, leukemia, influenza, hemophilia, and

Parkinson’s disease; and they’ve been used to study lactose

digestion, sexually transmitted diseases, appendicitis, human

longevity, mosquito mating, and the negative cellular effects of

working in sewers. There are endless researches about HeLa. So

for me, the family needs to be supported and honored. At least

give the family descendants education and health insurance or

something like that. If Hanreitta Lacks was so important, why not

make her family feel important just the way she deserved it?

5. How would you feel if you discovered that your mother’s cells had been used in so

many different research programs? How would your reactions be similar to Deborah’s?

How would they differ?

I would be very mad and probably go ballistic if I discover

someone’s using my mother’s cells or tissues in some research

program that we know nothing about. Who wouldn’t? They are

invading our privacy because in the technology that we have right

now, they would know the identity of a person just by examining

one’s cells. And it’s very unethical for a researcher to use

someone’s cells without their permission.

Like Deborah, I will search for answers. I want to know what

happened to my mother and what are they doing to her cells now. I

want to know more about my mom. And I will do everything for her

to be known around the world, I will make sure everyone knows

about the help she gave to medicine and other fields of science.

But unlike Deborah, I wouldn’t be scared to know and discover

things. I wouldn’t hide and sulk somewhere whenever something

wrong happens. I will continue to search for answers no matter

what happens.

6. Do you agree with the assertion that people are morally obligated to allow tissues

taken during medical and diagnostic procedures to be used for research that could

potentially help others? What restrictions, if any, should people be allowed to place on

research using their tissues?

I agree on the idea that people should allow tissues taken

during medical and diagnostic procedures to be used for research

that could potentially help others on the condition that, if they

are already going to use it, the researchers will inform the

donor. It is very important that the patients be informed on what

their tissues will undergo and not just read or sign the consent

and general information flyers. The patients should be updated

from time to time on whatever is going on with their tissues.

7. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is the story of an African American woman and

her family that touches on many big issues: bioethics, racism, poverty, science, faith,

and more. What threads stand out to you and why?

The issues that stayed with me even after I read the book

were about bioethics, racism, discrimination and poverty. Sadly

and unfairly, all people of color or black are more suspect of

discrimination or imminent violence in our society, without

regard to socioeconomic status or other realistic evidence.

Prejudices against poor people of every color and background are

obvious. Other prejudices include stereotyping, discriminating

against, and even attacking, people based on their sexual

orientation.

Throughout The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, we are able

to follow the stories of scientists who dealt with the HeLa

cells. The dilemmas that arise in each of the stories are all

very similar. They raise multiple ethical questions and we are

able to engage in the explicit argument that Rebecca poses. Is

consent a necessity to proceed with testing on patients who are

unaware of the procedures being done on them? Does a person’s

biological material belong to that person once it is detached

from their body? These make up a minute percentile of the

questions asked throughout society regarding patient rights and

consent. While discovering the scientists’ and researchers’

stories, we find that their attitudes are all fairly similar,

apart from the few who were morally and ethically aware of what

they were doing. The story reveals the blunt truth of what took

place behind hospital, clinic, and testing facility doors. The

various chapters dealing with the scientific approach to the HeLa

cells present multiple injustices and few instances of attempts

by doctors to do what is ethically correct.

Governments have the obligation to prevent marginalization,

to ensure protection and to guarantee the enjoyment of human

rights for all, including the right to education, the right to

adequate housing, the right to health and the right to food and

safe water but after reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta

Lacks, it’s obvious the government isn’t doing anything.

Discriminated groups, such as Afro-descendants, indigenous

peoples and migrants are especially affected by the different

manifestations of poverty in the areas of economic and social

rights such as education, adequate housing, and health care, as

well as other rights including the right to work in just

conditions, social security, food and water.

Literature Cited

Boshart, M. (1984). Type of papillomavirus DNA, its presence in

genital cancer biopsies and in cell lines derived from

cervical cancer. EMBO Journal, III (5).

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