Some may be heralding the National Institutes of Health\u2019s agreement with Henrietta Lacks\u2019 family as a historic breakthrough for patient consent regarding scientific research, but troubling questions linger.<\/p>\n
Ever since Rebecca Skloot published her critically-acclaimed bestseller The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks in 2010, Lacks\u2019 story has been at the forefront of the medical community, especially as it relates to ethical questions. Oprah Winfrey is even set to make a HBO film out of it.<\/p>\n
Lacks, a descendant of slaves, was born in Roanoke, Virginia on August 1, 1920 as Loretta Pleasant but, after her mother\u2019s death in childbirth, ended up living with her grandfather in Clover, Virginia in a home that had once been a part of the slave quarters of the plantation of her slave-holding ancestors. As a teenager, Lacks gave birth to a child fathered by her first cousin David \u201cDay\u201d Lacks, who became her husband in 1941. Together, they relocated from a tobacco farm to Baltimore County, Maryland where David Lacks began working for a steel mill.<\/p>\n
In all, the couple had five children, one of whom was mentally ill, institutionalized and later died. During the birth of the fifth child in 1950 at John Hopkins Hospital, which treated black people, it was discovered that Lacks had cervical cancer. Although diagnosed and treated by John Hopkins, Lacks died in 1951 but, amazingly, her cells lived on, without her consent, literally helping to save the lives of many others. Lacks\u2019 cells, known as HeLa cells, were unusual because hers were the first ones found to grow outside the body and not die within days as others had. In fact, they were able to reproduce an entire generation every 24 hours.<\/p>\n
Because of this phenomenon, they became essential to modern scientific research around the globe, playing a vital role in developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization and much, much more.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo widespread was the subsequent distribution of HeLa cells over the years that 76,000 research articles have been written that cite use of the cells in one form or another,\u201d writes David Kroll in his Forbes article, \u201cEthical Justice, But No Financial Rewards, For The Henrietta Lacks Family.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the British newspaper The Telegraph\u2019s 2010 article \u201cThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: a bittersweet legacy\u201d by Liz Hunt, \u201cIn 2009, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had some 11,000 patents logged involving HeLa.\u201d<\/p>\n