HeLa or Henrietta Lacks?

The name HeLa is one of the most popular things talked about in the medical world. HeLa is an immortal cell line that is used in medical or scientific research. HeLa was the first line of cells known to be immortal. Many professionals are familiar with the term HeLa and how much this line of cells has contributed to medical history and science as we know it but not everyone knows who the person behind the HeLa cells is. Without this specific person, so many medical milestones would not have been reached. That person is Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks was a “poor black tobacco farmer whose cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951.” (Skloot, 2010) Henrietta Lacks was the mother to five children and wife to David Lacks, whom she married at the age of 14. After her last child, she knew there was something terribly wrong with her body and after waiting for what may have been too long, it was revealed that she had cervical cancer. Dr. Howard Jones, who discovered that she had a very large and malignant tumor located on her cervix, diagnosed her at John Hopkins Hospital. It was exactly where she had said she felt something.

Her cancer was either very rapid growing and aggressive or she did not seek treatment soon enough. Nonetheless, she began treatment for the cancer, which at the time were radium treatments. During a surgical procedure, Henrietta Lack’s cells were sent to Dr. George Otto Gey for clinical evaluation. Here it was observed that Henrietta Lacks’s cells were not like normal cells that died out, in fact they were doubling ever 20-24 hours. So, testing began on her cells and they were the first line of immortal cells that lead to many medical breakthroughs. Although her cells were so significant in the medical world, they were taken and studied without her consent. Neither Henrietta nor her family knew what her cells were being used for. So many people profited from them but her or her family was not compensated at all.

The book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” written by Rebecca Skloot goes into much detail about the early life of Henrietta Lacks and the lives of her family members and the controversy behind the HeLa case. I do believe that this book effectively illustrates the significance of Henrietta Lack’s life, her contributions to science, and their impact on her family. I do not think that there are any problematic elements to how Lacks or her family is portrayed. She goes into a lot of detail to show the reader an inside to Henrietta Lacks’s early life and what kind of person she was. Then she goes to tell the readers what kind of impact finding out about their mother’s cells had on the children. An example of this from the book is interviewing with Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah and getting her perspective.

Knowing about Henrietta Lacks is important in my opinion. She has contributed to the world so much and I think that putting a face to that is only fair and respectful. Her cells have a hand in testing the first polio vaccine, various cancer studies, genetics, and space microbiology. Not to mention, the various medications that her cells have a hand in creating. Although her or her family was never compensated for that, as they should have been especially since her cells were taken without consent, I think that knowing about Henrietta Lacks story is important for everyone to know about.

Learning about Henrietta Lacks’s story has opened my eyes to actually how important the topic of consent is. We all acknowledge consent but when it comes down to actually getting it, it is a whole other story. Everyone has rights, especially to their own body and taking away that right is unjust and unfair. No one should have to go through not being respected enough to have something taken from them without their knowledge or consent. This has made me more compassionate in the sense that I take the extra step to ensure 100% that whatever patient I will be dealing with knows every detail of their care they will receive. Medical professionals can ensure ethical practices by doing things like creating a specific code of conduct to follow by that is focused around ethical patient care and reinforcing consequences for unethical behavior to ensure that if it does happen, it is not repeated. By taking steps like these, unethical issues can be avoided in the workplace and patients can be given the optimum level of care and respect.


References

Skloot, R. (2011). The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Broadway.