When Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cancer in 1951, doctors took her cells a

Question

When Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cancer in 1951, doctors took her cells and grew them in test tubes. Those cells led to breakthroughs in everything from Parkinson's to polio. But today, Henrietta is all but forgotten. In an excerpt from her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot tells her story.

In 1951, at the age of 30, Henrietta Lacks, the descendant of freed slaves, was diagnosed with cervical cancer—a strangely aggressive type, unlike any her doctor had ever seen. He took a small tissue sample without her knowledge or consent. A scientist put that sample into a test tube, and, though Henrietta died eight months later, her cells—known worldwide as HeLa—are still alive today. They became the first immortal human cell line ever grown in culture and one of the most important tools in medicine: Research on HeLa was vital to the development of the polio vaccine, as well as drugs for treating herpes, leukemia, influenza, hemophilia, and Parkinson's disease; it helped uncover the secrets of cancer and the effects of the atom bomb, and led to important advances like cloning, in vitro fertilization, and gene mapping. Since 2001 alone, five Nobel Prizes have been awarded for research involving HeLa cells.  

There's no way of knowing exactly how many of Henrietta's cells are alive today. One scientist estimates that if you could pile all the HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they'd weigh more than 50 million metric tons—the equivalent of at least 100 Empire State Buildings.

Today, nearly 60 years after Henrietta's death, her body lies in an unmarked grave in Clover, Virginia. But her cells are still among the most widely used in labs worldwide—bought and sold by the billions. Though those cells have done wonders for science, Henrietta—whose legacy involves the birth of bioethics and the grim history of experimentation on African-Americans—is all but forgotten.

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/world/excerpt-from-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks_1/all#ixzz4wwdNjnLq

Discuss how some groups have a history of being exploited or left out by medical researchers (e.g., women, unrepresented patients). To what extent should research take into account differences among human beings?

Explanation / Answer

Medical researcher is eagerly waiting to identify the correct diagnosis in that they involved to do anything. But as a human being we have certain rules and regulations to do any work. In above case they have collect cell without intimating her that is wrong.

In today's world such type of case is in abundant amount. One of newspaper published a post of such that I want to describe here.

Paraplegia is a condition where there is damage of spinal chord which is made up of stem cells. Stem cells is very difficult to prepare and only develop by birth. Here some physician removed the placenta of pregnant women and from placenta cells they developed stem cells which can be used as in injection form to insert in damage chord. Lot of time they withdrawal samples from placenta and develop. Research is not so successful but some of recovery patient get.

Research of such case is depend upon the type of patient and category. Like if patient has education then it is not easy to withdraw such sample as he know. Generally such cases are mostly seen in illiterate patient.

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