Henrietta Lacks and Health Care

Henrietta Lacks and Health Care Leadership

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was a very interesting story. Some background of the book was Henrietta was born in 1920 to poor parents in Roanoke, Virginia. After her mother died in 1924 while giving birth to her tenth child, Henrietta and her siblings moved to Clover, Virginia, where they were split up amongst different members of the family. Henrietta was raised by her grandfather and David Lacks, which is her first cousin. Henrietta and David had their first children when she was 14 and they later married when she was 21. Henrietta and David had five children together. Her last child she had was 4 months before she was diagnosis.

I believe that Skloot’s work may be a further incident in the progressive historical objects and ideas. Skloot’s case was a historical object that had one of immense scientific importance of the HeLa cell. In reading this book it does pain a very clear picture of the lives and exploitation resulting from racial segregation. There was involvement of the entire family in the work and poverty. There were several dangerous labor conditions in the mill during World War II (18-26). Henrietta didn’t understand what exactly was going on when she was sick. Henrietta and her family were unacknowledged and uncompensated for her contribution to the medical community.

No, I do not agree with Christoph Lengauer’s quote. There is one thing, however, there is a consistent about the interaction with medical and scientific professionals, is her desire to know more about her mother. I do not think that it is “HeLa this and HeLa that”. I believe that people reading science books need to know people’s name because that is part of science. When reading this you can see there is a deep desire to know more about her parent. There needs to have a pairing human friendship with precedes to serve and make a powerful claim with humanity and individuals is part of science.

I do believe being a leader and understand ethical issues is very important. It was unethical to take Henrietta’s cells without consent. Yes, these cells have always been crucial with scientific knowledge, but it was unethical. Another unethical part is taking Henrietta’s consent for procedure to find out if she had cancer or not. I do believe that the family should have received compensation for the current commercial value of the cells. I do not agree with the courts, once the sample is removed from a patient, it is medical waste and that a patient has no right to it.

Two to three examples of what medical professionals can do to prevent unethical practices are: The first example is medical professionals need to create policies and practices. I believe that organizations need to research, develop, and document policies and processes. The organizations need to report ethics violations. When making policies it need to be part of the employee handbook and provide protections also. The second example would be hire right people. In this case medical professionals need to select quality people from day one that can make a huge difference in the ethics of each organization. There should be background checks and come up with screening tools. The third example is leadership must walk the talk. Any leaders can talk policies and processes but then turn around and act unethically.

 

Henrietta’s Cells

I believe The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks effectively portrays her life, her cells contribution to science, and how her family has been impacted by both losing Henrietta and the advanced research of their mother’s cells. In part one of the book, there is information about how Henrietta met her husband, how she came to live in Turners Station, and the process of her treatment and diagnosis by Johns Hopkins. After reading the book, we can see how people perceived her nature and that she was strong throughout treatments while not sharing her struggles.

In 1951, two samples of Henrietta’s cells were taken before the beginning of her cancer treatment. Both samples were given to Dr. George Gey, who would take any cells he could find to grow. One sample was taken from her tumor while the other was of normal healthy vaginal cells (Skloot, 2011). When he was able to successfully grow the tumor cells, he began distributing them to other researchers as they were the first cells he could continue to grow (Skloot, 2011). The first process of growing Henrietta’s cells provided helpful information about what media and nutrients were needed to grow human cells. Dr. Gey had been working on finding the right medium for growth of human cells, and Henrietta’s were the first he was able to keep alive (Skloot, 2011)

After Dr.Gey shared Henrietta’s cells, they were sent to laboratories throughout the world. Her cells were used by the National Foundation of Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) in Polio vaccine trials (Skloot, 2011). The HeLa cells were used in radiation studies, DNA research like chromosomal disease diagnosis, and Virology studies. Her cells were also a part of NASA experiments including sending cells into space. (Skloot, 2011) The importance of her vastly growing cells was spreading throughout the world. HeLa cells were then mass produced, shipped through mail, and used for even more experiments.

Sharing Family Information

While Skloot dives into the life of Henrietta, a description of how her cells are being used is provided along with a vivid description of her children’s lives after she had passed. Henrietta was a strong woman who until late into her treatment and diagnosis did not share that she had cancer. Her family was unaware about how she felt and she even told her husband she was only slightly sick and after one treatment it would be done (Skloot, 2011). Years after the HeLa cells were growing in labs, the Lacks family did not know about them.

I could see problematic elements in the way Skloot describes and provides details about the Lacks family. I feel the amount of information shared about her kids, cousins, and family was too much. There was information about crimes committed by her son and even abuse her daughter went through (Skloot, 2011). when Skloot began searching for Henrietta’s family, she was warned that they kept to themselves and they were difficult to get in contact with (Skloot, 2011). When she gained the family trust and was able to talk to them, she put every detail of their lives in this book.

For Henrietta’s case, I can support Lengauer’s quote describing the importance of knowing who the cells came from. He describes how having knowledge about Henrietta’s life is necessary. Her case is one of the first questions of patient rights to cells and even consent of sharing patient information. When information about Henrietta is shared, this also shares the information about her children. With her cells being used in DNA and chromosomal studies, her children’s health information will be shared. In the end, Henrietta’s family wanted the record to be set straight and no longer have the wrong name shared with her cells.

Ethics

Reading about Henrietta’s and her family experiences with consent and sharing of their personal information can re-enforce the importance of protecting patients. As healthcare workers, we are tasked with treating our patients along with protecting them. Medical professionals must not share any information to those who do not have access or rights to patient information. We must also follow correct procedures with only accessing necessary patient information and not opening files on unprotected computers. We must not act bias or judgmental while treating patients. We follow guidelines to protect patients religious or personal preferences.


Skloot, R. (2011). The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York, NY: Broadway Books