...turn it in at any point before the exam. You have 2 options with this reading….. #1 you can answer all of the questions related to the chapters below, or #2 you can develop your own project to show your understanding of the books concepts. You do this all the time in English class, now you can create your own project to present the many issues in the story of Hela cells. There are several questions to be answered below. Make sure you develop answers to each of the questions using complete sentences. DO NOT simply say “Ch 1 Q 1 No” I should not have to refer back to the question each time you answer a question to see what the question was…. incorporate the question into the answer and elaborate upon your answer when necessary. Prologue: The Woman in the Photograph 1. The author uses several similes to describe cells. What simile does she use to describe the way a cell looks? What simile does she use to explain the functions of the different parts of a cell? What do these similes suggest about biology? 2. What is mitosis? What beneficial biological processes involve mitosis? 3. What simile does Donald Defler use to describe mitosis? 4. What happens when there is a mistake during the process of mitosis? 5. According to Defler, how important was the discovery of HeLa cells? 6. As a high school student, Skloot began researching HeLa cells to find out more about Henrietta Lacks. Examine pages 5 & 6 and write down each step that Skloot took to...
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...Ethical issues: 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. These are issues because the cells of Henrietta lack were used to create “immortal” cells that provided a steady supply of cells for medical research and allowed to find cure for multiple diseases, and guaranteed the medical industry millions of dollar when her family his struggling to pay for healthcare. Moreover, researchers at Johns Hopkins asked the Lack’s family to give blood sample to test for cancer when in fact, the sample were used solely to identify their mother’s cell. The researchers never contacted back the Lack’s family, and some of them still wonder if they have the same cancer that killed their mother. These issues in this case concern the broad category of consumer confidence issues where employers and employees have responsibilities to their customers or clients. Johns Hopkins, a healthcare provider institution, and its doctors and researchers who are the care giver had responsibilities to their patient Henrietta and her family. In addition, the case is concerned with the specific are of fiduciary responsibilities, and client confidentiality and privacy...
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...The chromosomes inside the cells swelled and spread out, and for the first time, scientists could see each of them clearly.” (Skloot 100) Skloot continuously discusses the idea that perhaps it was not good to take Henrietta’s cells without asking her but Skloot also discusses what great impacts the cells had and how medical research would not be as advanced as it is today, concerning the subject of cells, without Lacks’ contribution. A great number of medical professionals were inspired by the special cells and a new determination grew inside of them which was eager to find out more about cells and this caused a great number of many new discoveries, “And soon, HeLa cells weren’t the only ones being bought and sold for research – with media and equipment standardization, culturing became easier and researchers began growing cells of all kinds.” (Skloot 102) The author then goes on to reveal the idea that it was not technically illegal for the doctors to take Lacks’ cells, “Though no law or coke of ethics required doctors to ask permission before taking tissue from a living patient…” (Skloot 89) This idea shows that the author wants to push the audience more towards believing the doctors had made the correct decision, while still...
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...That was the bad part...cause I don’t know if they didn’t give us any information because they was making money out of it, or if they was just wanting to keep us in the dark about it.” (Skloot 168). Commentary: The Lacks family knew nothing of the HeLa cells, nor did they make any money off of the billion dollar innovations surrounding them. This was most likely due to Henrietta’s societal position earlier in her life, where Johns Hopkins felt no obligation to inform her of her cell sample because she was in the charitable public ward. The lack of information given to Henrietta, and her unwillingness to vocalize any of her concerns led to the exploitation and suffering of her family. Evidence: “It was like a nightmare. She’d read in the paper about the syphilis study at Tuskegee, which had just been stopped by the government after forty years, and now...Hopkins had part of Henrietta alive and scientists everywhere were doing research on her and the family had no idea.” (Skloot 180). ...
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...In 1952 HeLa cells became the first living cells shipped through the postal mail. The Tuskegee Institution opened the first HeLa factory that same year. They were a nonprofit organization that supplied cells to laboratories and researchers. Later on the company Microbiology Associates began selling HeLa cells for profit. HeLa cells have been used to conduct thousands of researches and medical discoveries. It is estimated that there has been more than 60,000 studies published using HeLa cells. In 1952, HeLa cells were used to help develop a polio vaccine. These cells were also used to test a variety of other vaccines, which have since saved millions of lives. In 1965, HeLa cells became the first cells ever...
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...for exceptional results for medical research since her passing, including the polio vaccine. However, the debate is over researchers taking her cells without her consent and made no immediate family members until 19 years later. Bringing this situation to the forefront of the implications and role ethics play in research today. Since the early 1970’s the story of Henrietta Lacks and her dominate cells has provided a great debate on a topic that will forever be in question, ethical principals. Dr. George Gey is the doctor that obtained the cells in order to find a cure for cancer. He was a great professional, I believe, that wanted nothing more than to find a cure for cancer, including profit. Because of this he wanted to keep Henrietta’s name private due to her passing and the understanding of a lawsuit by the immediate family, he made it known the cells had come from a woman named Helen Lang (Cancer cell research, 1997). Dr. Gey was able to start a cell line with an isolated cell of Henrietta’s, and called the line HeLa cells, which are still being used today. Dr. Gey used these unstoppable cells to produce the first human cell line that has been used time and time again for cancer research....
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...The Immortality of Ethics in Science and Medicine Rebecca Skloot’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” raises a number of ethical questions through the story of a woman whose immortal cells have made and continue to make an incredible difference in the world of science and medicine. A doctor’s duty is to treat and care for patients, regardless of their race, ethnicity, and income level. In the mid-1900’s, however, few medical professionals practiced medicine in this manner. Low-income, black patients who could not afford a high standard of care were forced to seek care in facilities which often viewed them as research subjects. Henrietta Lacks sought medical care in the Johns Hopkins University Hospital where she began painfully deteriorating...
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...Henrietta Lacks. A poor black women, who didn’t even know she made a giant impact on the medical world. Henrietta's cells were taken from her at the John Hopkins Hospital without her knowledge. They were grown in culture and used for many different things. “Scientists have used HeLa cells to develop the polio vaccine; they have gone into space and have been exposed to nuclear testing and to toxins” (Reference 1) The major problem with this is that it was unethical. The scientists and doctors didn’t care that they were being unethical, because they figured that Henrietta would deny them the right to do so. Another problem is that we would never know; since they never did ask her. By not asking her if they could do so, they caused for controversy to occur later on. People to this day still talk about what happened in 1951 because it was an evolutionary event....
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...Hospital to begin treatment for an extremely aggressive strain of cervical cancer. As she lay on the operating table, a sample of her cancerous cervical tissue was taken without her knowledge or consent and given to Dr. George Gey, the head of tissue research. Gey was conducting experiments in an attempt to create an immortal line of human cells that could be used in medical research. Those cells, he hoped, would allow scientists to unlock the mysteries of cancer, and eventually lead to a cure for the disease. Until this point, all of Gey’s attempts to grow a human cell line had ended in failure, but Henrietta’s cells were different; they never died.” (USF 2013-14 Common Reader, The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Pg1) The cells, called HeLa, became one of the most important tools in medical research, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and more. Less than a year after her initial diagnosis, Henrietta’s cancer was too much for her to bare, and the cancer took over her body. Because of her poverty she was buried in an unmarked grave on her family’s land. She was only thirty-one years old. Her family never knew, at that time that a portion small piece of Henrietta was still living, and that small piece would change the course of healthcare in American and the world, and the course of medical ethics. Although their mother’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, the Lacks family have received nothing from those cell lines, and cannot even afford...
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...Henrietta Lacks, a woman that died of cervical cancer in 1951, single handedly changed the field of science. Not long before she passed away, a doctor took a sample of her cancer cells, the cells from her cervix were later on named HeLa cells, and these cells helped pave the way to numerous experiments and research all over the world. Even though HeLa brought along many achievements with its discovery, it also brought disappointments to some researchers, and pain for her family. You see, she nor her family consented to her cells being sampled, or the amounts of experiments and research that occurred after. Her family was never aware that such actions even took place. Even so, on February 1st, 1951, the day Henrietta Lacks walked in to John Hopkins Hospital, was the day we started looking at cell research a lot differently. Ethical Principles On August 1st, 1920, Henrietta Lacks, a black woman from Virginia, was born. When she was just 21 years old, she moved to Baltimore, Maryland. February 1st, 1951; Henrietta entered the John Hopkins Hospital to see a gynecologist, complaining of irregular bleeding. It was then that Dr. Howard Jones discovered a purple lesion on her cervix. As per routine a sampling of the lesion, which was purple and bled easily when touched, was collected and taken to Dr. George Otto Gey. Mary Kubicek, laboratory assistant of Dr. Grey, then cultivated the sample; it was that very moment when science would be changed forever (Films...
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...restrictive agreement between the government and the family of the unknowing HeLa cells donor was welcome and long overdue” (Henrietta Lacks), this tells that the author knew and understood the wrongfulness that was done to Henrietta Lacks. The author uses most of the eight elements in the article, and makes it very informative and persuasive to a person that has no prior knowledge of the story of Henrietta Lacks. Using the element of critical thinking is...
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...After being told that her cells were still alive, the family of Henrietta Lacks was heckled by the media, pummeled with questions that they didn't know the answers to. The scientific community had been withholding this information for over 20 years. George Gey, a researcher at Johns Hopkins Hospital had experimented on her tissues, putting them into culture so that they would replicate themselves over and over, to grow a long line of HeLa cells. At first, Henrietta’s identity had been concealed and changed to Helen Lane, a false identity. The Lacks family, mainly Henrietta, had been viewed as abstractions, merely just an idea of a person, thoughts floating around that carried no meaning. It was common for the scientific community to use...
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...malignant tumor of her cervix was discovered, and was treated with radiation therapy, which was ultimately unsuccessful. Mrs. Lacks died on October 4, 1951, at the age of 31. During the course of her treatment for cervical cancer, a section of the tumor was removed and sent to the pathology lab. While being treated with radiation, two more samples (one of healthy tissue, and one of cancerous tissue) were also removed without Henrietta’s consent or knowledge. These cell samples were given to Dr. George Otto Gey, a scientific researcher who had spent years trying to figure out how to keep cells alive outside the human body. In Henrietta’s cells, he found his answer. The cell line grown from Henrietta Lack’s sample, now known simply as HeLa, has been utilized in research and medical labs throughout the world since the 1950s. The controversy The case of Henrietta Lacks is unique, in that it serves both as a cautionary tale and a success story. Both the demographics of the case and the mindset during the time in which this occurred led to the lack of proper ethics concerning the gathering of cells from this woman. In the 1950s, the sanctity of the person was not honored, and experimentation was deemed acceptable, whether with or...
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...Ethan Weisman 11/3/15 Prologue - The Woman in the Photograph What is the code name for the world’s first immortal human cells? HeLa How did Henrietta Lacks die? Cervix cancer How have her cells helped advance science? helped research genes the cause cancer helped make drugs to treat herpes leukemia influenza hemophilia Parkinson’s disease they have been used to study lactose digestion STD’s apendicitis human longevity mosquito mating the bad effects of working ins the sewers Part I - Life Chapter 1 - The Exam When Henrietta first tells her cousins Margaret and Sadie about the tumor, how does she describe it? Henrietta describes the pains as very painful, awful knot. Why did David Lacks take Henrietta to the public wards at John Hopkins...
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...the fact that this was a huge scientific breakthrough, the Lacks family was never given any compensation, and had no knowledge that this was happening, partly due to the fact that Henrietta’s real name was not given out for quite some time. This is what Skloot really tries to focus on, the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade getting interviews from scientists and researchers, and meeting up with the surviving members of the Lacks family, before she quickly realized that this uneducated and poor family still had no knowledge of what really happened to their family member, decades after her passing. Once it was realized that HeLa cells were contaminated, and that most of the scientific breakthroughs were obsolete, the Lacks family was bombarded by John Hopkins Hospital and other doctors to donate blood because they needed to figure out how to keep the HeLa project going. Doctors had hopes that Henrietta’s cells would cure cancer or find a polio vaccine or advance gene therapy. As steps to creating laws on informed consent moved forward, and people started acknowledging Henrietta Lacks, Skloot attempted to keep the family as informed as they could be, even taking Henrietta’s children to view her cells, and starting a foundation in Henrietta’s name. One of the great things about this monograph is that it covers so many important topics, such as racism, sexism, domestic violence, and hospital ethics, and covers them with excellent writing and riveting stories. The reader gets...
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