...For twenty year since Hela cells firstly announced nationwide, Henrietta’s family hadn’t been realizing there some of her mother still alive. After He la cells became famous all nationwide, McKusick and Hsu, who are scientists “needed to find genetic markers that would identify HeLa cells. They called the family and asked for blood samples” (1251) saying Janice. However, they didn’t tell Henrietta’s daughter the real reason. They just called her to check see will she got same cancer as her mother did. At this time, Skloot describes that her daughter was very scared: [M]c Kusick did not explain why he was having someone draw blood from Deborah. Instead he told her about Henrietta’s cells being used for the polio vaccine and genetic research;...
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...Name:_______________________ Date/Period:__________________ Part 1 Henrietta Lacks Multiple Choice Questions Directions: Circle the best answer for each question.Each question has only one right answer. Use your knowledge of the book to help you answer each question. What genre is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks? Biography Non-fiction Historical Fiction Creative Non-fiction Why did David Lacks take Henrietta to the public ward at John Hopkins instead of a closer hospital? He thought that Hopkins was the best hospital around. He knew that the hospital would respect his religious values. It was the only major hospital for miles that treated black patients. John Hopkins specialized in treating cancer patients. Who was Henrietta’s gynecologist? Howard Jones George Gey Richard Wesley TeLinde Mary Kubicek Who is Crazy Joe? Day’s brother who helped them sell tobacco. Tommy Lacks’ friend who worked on the plantation. Henrietta’s boyfriend that she cheered for during horse races. Day and Henrietta’s cousin who was in love with Henrietta. What was different about Henrietta’s second child, Elsie? She was born in a hospital. She had lighter skin than the rest of the Lacks children. She was born on the floor of the home-house. She had a mental deficiency that kept her brain from fully developing. How did Pearl Harbor change life in Turner Station? The demand for steel and workers skyrocketed so there were more jobs. Housing had become cheaper because...
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...In 1954, virologist, Chester Southam, theorized the source of cancer; he believed cancer was caused either by a virus or an insufficiency in the immune system. To test his theories, Southam began injecting unknowing patients with HeLa cells. This research became extremely controversial. Southam was tremendously deceitful about what he was doing. For example, when experimenting on cancer patients, Southam “told them he was testing their immune systems; he said nothing about injecting them with someone’s malignant cells” (Skloot, 128). According to Skloot, he was “withholding information because patients might have refused to participate in his study if they’d known what he was injecting” (130). When it was released that Southam had been conducting...
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...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 begin her research. Chapter One: The Exam 1. Why does Sadie think Henrietta hesitated before seeing a doctor? 2. What...
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...Who should profit from the HeLa cells in particular, and medical advances in general? Does the Lacks family have any claim to the money that has been made from HeLa? Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one. ~Chinese Proverb I find the question of who should reek the benefits of the HeLa cells in the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks to be not just be a simple he or she answer (if that makes any sense), but I find this question really asks something deeper. The questions I believe this is asking us is if it was legal for dr. George Otto Gey to do what he did and if so was it morally and ethically correct to for him to do so. As for the claim question, two questions really have to be answered, and they are: I.) Do the Lacks legally have any claim to the money that was profited from the HeLa cells? II.) Do the Lacks morally (without legal matters being taken into consideration) have a claim to the money that was profited from the HeLa cells? Legally Right or Wrong Now to elaborate on the legal aspects of this question; was it legally acceptable for the HeLa cells to be taken without Henrietta’s permission/knowledge and used for research and profit? From an excerpt from the Columbia Science and Law Technology Review it gives a similar case that was argued in the Supreme Court (circa 1980’s). In the following excerpt it will show the more than likely ruling to a HeLa case (had one taken place). Given the current state of the law, the Henrietta...
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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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...Henrietta lack’s mother died when she was four. Henrietta married Day at the age of 14, and had five children, and lived a life of poverty. She lived in poverty in Virginia with her 5 children. Henrietta Lacks was born on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia. Lacks died of cervical cancer on October 4, 1951, at age 31. Cells harvested from her body without her knowledge formed the HeLa cell line. Hinretta’s cells have been researched in every manner imaginable since that time. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is much more than a book about the Lacks family. It is also an atrocity that scientists disregarded the basic human rights any human should have, just for the name of science. “Scientist do not like to think of HeLa cells as and actual part of a human who had a life and emotions. So, they gave the cells the name HeLa to dehumanize them. A researcher named Robert Stevenson...
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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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...ethical and moral choices faced in medical research and in the treatment of patients (Bing Dictionary, n.d.). Bioethics takes a stand for what is right or wrong. It’s a subdivision of ethics and stands in conjunction with many other theories of ethics, such as Kantian deontology. Kant believed that inclinations, emotions and consequences should play no role in moral actions. This means that the motivation for action must be based on obligation. Mills utilitarianism, the foundation of utility or the greatest happiness principle. The practice of Dr. Wesley TeLinde taking cells from patients is debated between these two theories. His decision to take cells were ethically obscured. Alternatively, they were able to change medical history with HeLa cells, and the physicians felt their actions were for the greater good. However, from Henrietta’s...
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...Rebecca Skloot explores ethical and moral controversies in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by sharing Henrietta’s story with the world by using rhetorical devices to show the transcendence of the “HeLa” cells, and creating clear images throughout the text to give an accurate narration of the events during and after Henrietta’s life. The lives of her relatives become a focus to work towards revealing to the world, the person behind the cells. The central focus of Henrietta’s life is when the “HeLa” cells were removed from her body and used for science. Being such an integral part of the story, Skloot enhances the audience’s understanding of it with her use of rhetorical devices. Without this the medical terms and processes would...
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...I understand that these events happened years ago and that the scientific community, and the country as a whole, is somewhat better. For example, informed consent is now the law. I’m still horrified that companies could legally make millions off of the cells of a woman without her consent, and also without compensating her family. People made millions off of the HeLa cells while the Lacks family couldn’t afford to see a doctor. When I could put aside my anger for a moment, I was fascinated by the science behind the cells. The idea that it’s scientifically possible for cells to be taken out of the body and then continue to live and grow on their own is amazing. The cells helped develop the vaccine for Polio, went into space, and contributed to cloning, gene mapping, and in vitro fertilization (“Henrietta Lacks’ ‘Immortal’ Cells”). The HeLa cells caused a lot of problems for the Lacks family, but they also helped so many other people lead better...
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...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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...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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