...Medical experiments involving human subjects were extremely common throughout the 1900s and in many cases were highly unethical, one of those cases were Henrietta Lacks as well as The Tuskegee Men, also the Nazi Test subjects. Henrietta Lacks was used as a human subject for experiments when her doctors at Johns Hopkins took tissue samples from her cervix without her consent and attempted to grow and keep them alive. After she died of cervical cancer, these cells, known as HeLa cells, became essitenial to scientific research, contributing to developments like vaccines and other medical advancements. However because of her race and socio economic status, Henrietta Lacks was exploited by doctors, researchers and the media and treated as the largest medical experiment. A quote that supports this is “Hela cells were one of the most important things that happened to...
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...Instructor: Henrietta (Loretta) Pleasant, born in August of 1920 in Roanoke, VA, was an African American woman who was raised by her grandfather in a small cabin on a plantation. At the age of 14, she gave birth to her first child, a son, followed by a daughter four years later. She married the father of her children, her first cousin David Lacks, shortly thereafter. After having moved to Maryland for work, the couple had three other children. The last, Joseph, was born in November of 1950, and two months later, in January of 1951, Henrietta went to the hospital with abnormal bleeding. A 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...
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...The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, involves a great amount of various topics, from race, to gender, to cancer. A woman named Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman battling cervical cancer in the 1940’s until her death in 1951. As doctors tried to help her and find a cure for her, they had to study her cells and the cancerous cells. It was during the study of her cells that they realized her cells never died; in fact, her cells reproduced indefinitely. There are many ways to support the thesis of the book, exploring the ethics in medical research, and this book is relatable and significant to U.S. history involving medicine, race, gender, etc. The book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, was written because the...
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...Lloyd L. Cannedy, Ph.D. Book Review of “The Immortal Life of Henriettta Lack” Student: Abraham S Lincoln “Henrietta Lacks, a young black mother of five children, entered the colored ward of The Johns Hopkins 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...
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...further scientific studies and to make profit. Doctors accumulate enormous profit from stolen cells, and the patient does not have any say in who or where the cells go to. Cases such as Henrietta Lacks and John Moore have been brought into the eye of the public in order to show the misuse of cells. Ted Slavin’s case show the benefits of the patient and doctor working together toward a common goal. Doctors should be required to notify and obtain permission to use patient samples for research other than its original purpose, and the patient or their family should have control over who uses the samples to ensure proper usage and benefits of all involved parties. Twenty years went by before the Lack’s family discovered that Henrietta Lacks had not truly died, but that her cells continued to live on....
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...The solution to Henrietta Lacks The Ethics and Legal Solution Natalie Smith May 26, 2018 Medical Terminology, Law and Ethics 2 After reading the book of “The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks” a few years ago I was very amazed on how doctors back in those days just took bodily fluids and did experiments on patients without their permission. Since Henrietta was poor and doctors didn’t think it mattered if they took her cells it wouldn’t be any issues. Once they found out that her cells were able to be replicated infinitely in a lab they hit the gold mine of medical discoveries because they were able to find a vaccine for polio and breakthroughs in herpes, leukemia and even hemophilia and also were able to better understand numerous diseases that will help...
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...did indeed change the world of science but took decades to surface. This intricate story is described in the award-winning book, “The Immortal of Henrietta Lacks”. Published just three years ago, Rebecca Skloot tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman, who became the source of the first line of immortal cells. Henrietta was born Loretta Pleasant in Roanoke, Virginia in 1920. Henrietta lived a typical life for a poor African American of that time - growing up on her family's tobacco farm until her mother’s death. By 1950, Henrietta had married her first cousin, David “Day” Lacks, birthed five children, and relocated to the Baltimore, Maryland area. In January of 1951, Henrietta went to the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital complaining of a “knot” in her lower abdomen. It was found that the knot feeling was due a dangerous and growing tumor in her cervix. After a formal diagnosis of cervical cancer, samples of Henrietta’s cervix were removed unbeknownst to her. The biopsy samples were given to Dr. George Gey, a tissue culture specialist. He was working on creating an immortal cell line to be used for human medical research. He discovered that Henrietta’s cells, later known as “HeLa” cells, were very unique because they grew exponentially faster than standard cell lines and never died. Henrietta Lacks died at the early age of thirty-one due to the her metastasized cancer. Interestingly, her death was just the beginning of her legacy. Knowing the...
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...Henrietta Lacks was a poor black lady that worked in the plantations in the south. Without her knowledge, some cells were taken from her while she was at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951. She would become one of the “most important tools in medicine” (Skloot). Henrietta was born Loretta Pleasant on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia. At some point she changed her name to Henrietta. When her mother had died in 1924, she was sent to live with her grandfather in a log cabin that had been slave quarters of a white ancestor’s tobacco plantation. While living there, she and her first cousin David “Day” Lacks shared a room. In 1935, they had a son, Lawrence (Skloot). Henrietta would’ve only been 14. In 1939 they had a daughter, Elsie, and married...
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...it is the standards that members of a profession must follow. In psychology, ethics plays a big role in psychology because it protects the client and the counselor as well. However, in the case on Henrietta Lacks, it seems that there was no room for ethics during these scientists studies. Henrietta Lacks was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951. She was considered one of the most important tools in medicine and vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning gene mapping, and more (Skloot, 2010). Summary In an Internet video, Film Media Group (2012) states that in 1860, Benjamin Lacks had two children by a black mistress and they all worked in the tobacco field for three generations. Then, in 1942, Benjamin Lack's great granddaughter Henrietta Lacks (her friends called her “Hennie”) moved to Baltimore and died there in 1951. Right before she died, her cancer cells were taken from her body to help research and “conquer death.” Since then, her cells have been growing and multiplying since. There was a laboratory close to where Henrietta lived. In that laboratory was Dr. George Gey who wanted to rid the world of cancer. After a gynecologist appointment, abnormal, purple and cancerous tissue was given to Dr. Gey to study and from there, the study began. Afraid of a potential lawsuit from Henrietta's family, Dr. Gey kept the secret of the cells and referred to the cells “HeLa” (Film Media Group, 2012). This was the first time human cells...
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...Henrietta and the Lacks family Henrietta Lacks an Afro-American woman born August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia and later migrated to Dundalk (formerly Turner Station), Maryland. Henrietta married to her cousin David “Day” Lacks, they had five children; Lawrence, Elsie, David, Joseph (aka Zakariyyan Bari Abdul Rahman), and Deborah. In February 1951, Henrietta listened to Howard Jones, a gynecologist at John Hopkin Hospital, diagnosed her with Epidermoid Carcinoma of the Cervix Stage 1. Then eight months later, Henrietta enters into her final rest on October 4, 1951. What made her demise different from other related death, is that her cancerous cells changed medical history. Henrietta cancer cells killed her, it metastasized throughout her...
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...Phoenix Ethical Principles Paper Henrietta Lacks was born on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia and she died due to complications of cervical cancer on October 4, 1951.She had been receiving treatment at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. At the hospital she was treated with radium tube inserts, which is said to be the standard treatment for cervical cancer in 1951. As a matter of routine, samples of her cervix were removed without permission. Henrietta was 31 years old when she died. In this time it was customary for doctors and researchers to remove cells from a person for testing. Likewise cells were taken from Henrietta. The problem was that the cells were taken from her body without her knowledge or consent. These cells were later used to form the HeLa cell. The HeLa cell has been used many times over in medical research since they were removed from the body of Henrietta Lacks. The lack of consent in this case shined a light on the legal and ethical issues involved in medical research. On October 4, 1951 Henrietta Lacks died, but unlike others her cells did not die. Samples of her cells were removed from her body without her permission. During this time doctors frequently removed cells from patients without their permission or consent. Informed consent did not come into practice until the late 1970s due to another controversial case, the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment of 1932-1972. The cells taken from Henrietta are known as the He-La cell line...
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...The Immortal Life of Henriettta Lacks Option A: Focus on Pathos Pathos Paper In the book Rebecca Skloot entitled, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” the reader is able to identify pathos in parts of chapter eight and eleven entitled, “The Miserable Specimen and The Devil of Pain Itself.” In chapter 8 Skloot uses pathos to describe how Henrietta dealt with racism during her treatment, her miserable state of being during her radiation therapy treatments, and how her treatment impacted her own interactions with her own kids. In chapter eight, the author puts the reader in a mixture of emotions such as; anger, sympathy, sadness, misery and many more. The author tells the reader how her color impacted the way doctors treated her when she became extremely ill. The early 1990’s best describes the “Jim Crowe Era,” how the “colored” people were segregated from the white folks from hospitals, bathrooms, restaurants, and many more. Skloot illustrates how Henrietta had to deal with improper treatment because of her color, when she was literally dying. The quote from page 64 says; “But several studies have shown that black patients were treated and hospitalized in later stages of their illness than white patients. And once hospitalized, they got fewer pain medications and had higher mortality rates,” best illustrates that with all the unfair treatment “colored” patients receive, the reader realizes that there is a very slight chance Henrietta will survive and fight off her...
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...principle in so many areas of our lives, including health care, that it is naïve to conclude our actions are not motivated by valuable gain. Although we do altruistic things, we usually expect compensation. Just as the ‘do-gooder’ who donates to Goodwill expects to claim a tax deduction, the supporter who donates blood to the American Red Cross expects to receive free food and a T-shirt. Scientific research relies heavily on patient donations in order to gain insight into common health care strategies and to study disparate medical conditions; yet, a large amount of controversy exists regarding patient compensation. The most famous case regarding this controversy concerns Henrietta Lacks, a patient whose cancerous cells, taken without consent, became a worldwide tool for scientific research, and led way for Biotech companies to earn billions while Henrietta and her family received nothing. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the author Rebecca Skloot investigates Henrietta’s case, and includes asides of other research patients’ experiences regarding compensation. With consent now as convention, a relevant question arises in Skloot’s text: Should the research enterprise compensate patients who donate tissues for research, both in and outside of the course of medical care? This question demands reverent reflection, as the response will likely set a precedent for years to come. In order to examine whether patients in the course of medical care should receive compensation for tissue...
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...Institute, began a study to record the natural history of syphilis in hopes of justifying treatment programs for blacks. It was called the "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male." The study initially involved 600 black men, 399 with syphilis, 201 who did not have the disease. The study was conducted without patient knowledge or consent. Researchers told the men they were being treated for "bad blood," a local term used to describe several ailments, including syphilis, anemia, and fatigue. In truth, they did not receive the proper treatment needed to cure their illness. They didn’t even know they were in fact a part of a scientific study. In exchange for taking part in the study, the men received free medical exams, free meals, and burial cost coverage. The study lasted 40 years before it was exposed by the media. In July 1972, an Associated Press reporter published an article about the study, stating: “For 40 years the U.S. Public Health Service has conducted a study in which human guinea pigs, denied proper medical treatment, have died of syphilis and its side effects. The Study was conducted to determine from autopsies what the disease does to the human body.” Public outcry was immediate and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare launched an investigation. An advisory panel formed to review the experiment and decided that although the men had agreed to the study, it was still “ethically unjustified” given the risks and the lack of knowledge gained...
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...Reading “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot has identified various ethical issues. At the forefront is the disregard for patient consent when Henrietta Lacks cells are taken from her without her knowledge and sent to a lab where they grow and continuously sold to other labs all around the world. Informed consent is a patient right, however, at that time for a black woman no one thought twice about asking her permission or even informing her that samples were taken. Now looking back and think what occurred we cringe. Knowing that HeLa cells are in labs all around the world and were used in various vaccines and research without her permission is thoroughly chilling. “With Henrietta unconscious on the operating table… Wharton picked up a sharp knife and shaved two dime-sized pieces of tissue from Henrietta’s cervix” (Skloot, 2010, 33). This vivid account of the cells being taken from Henrietta’s...
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