RESEARCH PAPER Heneritta Lacks HeLa Cell Line

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Design, research, and write a paper based on original research on historical topics of your own choosing. The project should include a cover page, an abstract, pages with footnotes, and a bibliography. Papers should be in 12 font double spaced, 15-20 pages.

The purpose of this research paper is to inform individuals "That medical research as we know it today may not be if it were not for Heneritta Lacks." Lacks unknowingly contributed greatly to many medical advancements, treatments and cures. Lacks was a victim of exploitation, she never consented to the use of her tumor and was never compensated for her contributions.

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HENRIETTA LACKS HELA CELL LINE

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Abstract
Human biospecimens have been integral in medical advancements and scientific research. A lot
of ethical, policy and legal themes related to biospecimen research have been the subjects of
controversy across a wide range of audience including medical practitioners and the general
public. The mysteries that lie within the human body seem to be endless hence as much as
attempts are made to understand them, something is always above the horizon. In some
instances, these biospecimen mysteries not only delight and puzzle but also open opportunities
for discoveries, entailing the human body and health. Of all the greatest if not the greatest
mysteries involving human biospecimen is the Henrietta Lacks story, the poor African-American
lady whose cancer cells were extracted and used to make an immortal cell line (Hela), widely
used for scientific and medical experimentation. Although some ethical considerations are
surrounding the process of extraction of the cancer cells from Henrietta, the experiment turned
out as a miracle, and the woman is applauded for having greatly contributed to scientific research
and medical advancements involving cures and treatments, though she did it unknowingly. This
research paper provides a review of the case/story of Henrietta, the ethical considerations
surrounding it, the policy issues surrounding the HeLa controversy, as well as the significance or
contribution of the Henrietta story to the modern medical research and advancement.

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Introduction
The absence of Henrietta Lacks could have been a complete devastation to medical
research, medical advancement and medical knowledge in our present day. Although, medical
professionals exploited Henrietta, without her contributions many cures would be nonexistent in
the science of medicine as of today. The Hela cell line was the first cell line that was
immortalized was from Henrietta Lacks who was an African American woman from Virginia.
She was diagnosed with cancer in the 1970s, and two samples were obtained from her cervix
without her consent. These cells have been used for the past fifty years for medical research and
other commercial purposes (Skloot, 2013). The Hela cell line is popular, and demand increased
in the 1980s for scientists who needed to research cancer, AIDS, and other scientific purposes.
Henrietta Lack’s family, however, was not aware of the Hela cell line until 1975. This raised
concern across the world for the patent and privacy rights for the commercial use of the Hela
cells. The family took the matter to court but lost the case. This resulted in lack of compensation
to the family until today (Masters, 2002).1 After persistent efforts by the family, some
recognition has been given to Henrietta across the world for her contribution to medicine.
Efforts, however, need to be put by the government towards compensating Henrietta Lacks’
family for the use of the Hela cell line in medical research (Lucey, Nelson-Rees, and Hutchins,

1

Masters, John R. "HeLa cells 50 years on: the good, the bad and the ugly." Nature Reviews

Cancer 2.4 (2002): 315-319.

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2009)2 This research provides a critical review of the story of Henrietta Lacks the ethics, policies
and scientific research relevant to such kind of experiments involving bio specimen. The story
created a platform for major policy and ethical issues related to biomedical research especially
the need for informed consent in such kind of research.

Reflection of the Henrietta Lacks controversy
The tale involving the HeLa cell line controversy is now widely recognized not only
across the field of science and medicine but also across the public in America and the entire
world. Henrietta Lacks, a poor woman of African American origin, aged thirty, with five kids
was diagnosed with an abnormal cancer of the cervix in 1951 at Johns Hopkins Hospital. During
the diagnosis and treatment process, her tissues were taken and some portions forwarded to a
group of researchers for experimentation without the knowledge and permission of the patient.
During this time, it was a common practice of extracting tissue portions from patients and using
them for research without the knowledge and consent of patients. Until this time, medical
researchers had unsuccessfully tried for long to extract and produce cells outside the human
body. However, scientists established that Henrietta Lack’s cells could survive and culturally
divide indefinitely outside the body. This was a unique discovery, and the cells were labeled as
HeLa cells, after her first and second name. Although Henrietta quickly died from cancer, her

2

Lucey, Brendan P., Walter A. Nelson-Rees, and Grover M. Hutchins. "Henrietta Lacks,

HeLa cells, and cell culture contamination." Archives of pathology & laboratory
medicine 133.9 (2009): 1463-1467.

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cells continued to live and remain viable up to today and have continued to be utilized in science
and medical labs across the world for a wide range of biomedical experiments and studies. Since
the years after 1951, HeLa cells continue to be widely exposed to boundless infections and
toxins, destroyed by radiation and tested against countless drugs. The result of these wide
experiments and tests is hundreds and thousands of pieces of medical discovery and new
knowledge. This helped to shape the development and advancement of medicine in the last half
of the 20th century as well as the first decade of the 21st century3
Despite the initial researcher giving the cells away to any person who asked, the
downstream discoveries and the cell line grew extremely lucrative, yet Henrietta’s family did not
receive any financial benefit, remained poor and continued to have limited access to healthcare.
There was no concern at all for the person behind the HeLa cells, despite the continued
widespread use in laboratories all over the world. Researchers and scientists merely continued to
hail the cells as pivotal in the scientific breakthrough and discovery. After publication in 2010,
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks gained extensive attention. The book was dominated by the
discussion on informed consent. Other important themes included the compensation and the
welfare of the poor and the vulnerable. To a lesser degree, accountability, patient control, and
scientific progress were discussed with advocacy, public education and privacy discussed further
lowly. Professional literature in the book was discussed in a similar arrangement of themes,
which includes compensation, commercializatio...


Anonymous
Really great stuff, couldn't ask for more.

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