It is not written chronologically but reads so smoothly you may not be aware of it. Henrietta is a fairly long book, with 38 fairly short chapters. Where does HeLa fit into the history of medical research? Can one sue a medical researcher for using one's body in research without one's permission? What about releasing a patient's photo? What if the spleen or liver or pancreas in question is cancerous and must be removed – to whom does that removed organ now belong? All these are questions that you may not have thought about but now will, thanks to Rebecca Skloot's book. The reader will learn about the vaccine for hepatitis B, how a hemophiliac found out he had the answer in his cells and convinced a Nobel-winning medical researcher to work on the problem and solve it! He gave his cells exclusively to that researcher in lieu of making a fortune on them. It was thought that the average person could not understand DNA so nobody bothered to explain in terms they could comprehend.Ĭould the family sue on the grounds that someone revealed Henrietta's name and medical records? (They could, today.) And what about the statute of limitations?Ĭan one sell a lung or a kidney? How about cells? How about patenting them, if they are unique? Medical researchers didn't explain well enough so the family could understand – was that common in the 50s? Probably so. Members of the family thought Henrietta would become a mouse-human or a clone. They were mixed with mouse cells and grown in the lab. Family members thought tests on their cells would determine if they had cancer or would develop it so they waited patiently for results that never came. Much like the rest of the country during these times.įor years after HeLa cells became so valuable, members of the Lacks family were asked for vials of their blood to determine if their normal cells had the same characteristics as Henrietta's cancer cells. Some of her family never made it past fourth grade while others joined the military or were incarcerated or became addicts or attended graduate school or died as a teen in a mental institution (Crownsville, MD). Henrietta Lacks, however, was an African American from southern Virginia. Today, many members of the Lacks family cannot afford health care.Ībout Privacy or the Invasion Thereof – and a Question of EthicsĪfter a while, articles appeared about HeLa and someone called the woman Helen Lane or Helen Larson, or, in the 70s when I was in grad school, Helen Latham – all generally white women's names. And should her family and descendants be proud of her place in history or should they have received money from the sale and distribution of her cell line to labs all over the world? Was this the case with Henrietta? It depends on how you look at it.
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HeLa cell lines were incredibly important to medical research (HIV drugs, etc.) but in the early 50s research was still being done on people, especially minorities, without their permission. Since scientific research is more 'shared' than other fields, HeLa cells were available at reasonable cost and were the first mammalian cells found to be 'immortal' (to be able to live outside the body) – chicken cells previously had been found to have this characteristic but humans are mammals and research needs to be done on them sooner or later. HeLa cells were soon in great demand in labs all over the world. HBO Films will debut Wolfe's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks direct to HBO + streaming starting on April 22nd this spring.But were the cells donated or taken (stolen) without her knowledge or the permission of her family? It's based on the book of the same name written by Rebecca Skloot, first published in 2010. The screenplay was adapted by Peter Landesman and Alexander Woo and George C. Wolfe, of the films Nights in Rodanthe and You're Not You previously. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is directed by American filmmaker George C. Wolfe's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, from YouTube:Īn African-American woman named Henrietta Lacks (played by Renée Elise Goldsberry) becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s. Here's the official trailer for George C. This is technically a "made-for-TV" movie, but we're making an exception because this is an HBO production, and they're at the top of their game recently.
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Oprah Winfrey stars as Lacks' daughter, with a cast including Rose Byrne, Courtney B. The movie follows two timelines, the second involving her ancestors fighting to reclaim her name in medical history. Lacks died of cervical cancer in 1951, but her cells were taken without her permission for medical research, and they eventually became the first "immortal" human cells. Her family reclaimed her story." HBO has unveiled an official trailer for a film titled The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, adapted from the book of the same name, telling the story of Henrietta Lacks.