Reference no: EM133356652

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks -3

Advances in the field of cellular physiology are attributable to the ability to grow cells outside of the body in what we call in vitro culture in the 1950s, scientists attempted to culture human cells obtained from biopsies or surgical procedures These attempts, however, were mostly unsuccessful. Then, an investigator at Johns Hopkins received a sample of cervical cancer cells from an African American woman named Henrietta Lacks. The culture was named Hela and the cell line was fostered under culture, representing perhaps the earliest cell line grown successfully outside the body. Scientists around the globe were eager to have human cell lines available for research on the effects of various pathogens, drugs, and toxic agents on human tissue. An early success of the Hela cell line was its role in the development of the polio vaccine Cell-culturing techniques improved, and cell lines were started from normal tissues like heart, kidney, and liver tissue By the early 1960s, a central cell line repository was established in Washington, DC, and a multibillion-dollar industry was born.

Unfortunately, the success of the HeLa cells was short-lived, as beginning in 1966 scientists began to notice that their human cell lines were contaminated and taken over by Hela cells Over the next several years, it was confirmed that over three-quarters of the cell lines at the central repository were actually HeLa cells. Investigators who thought they were working with heart or kidney cells actually had been working with cervical cancer cells. This meant that hundreds of thousands of experiments performed in laboratories around the world were, in fact, invalid.

This contamination continued well into the 1980s, resulting in enormous losses of money, resources, and in some cases, prestige for individual laboratories and scientists.

There is another very important twist to this story. Henrietta Lacks' physicians took her cervical cancer cells without asking her, and although these cells were used to launch a medical revolution, neither Henrietta Lacks or her family benefitted financlally or otherwise. In fact, her family could not afford adequate health care. More than 20 years later, her children found out that her cells were still alive and became aware of the commercial use of ther What happened over the next 30 years helped to form our current practices of bioethics and informed consent.

1. If you were a scientist in the 1960s and learned that some of your most prestigious published work was invalid due to the contamination of your cell lines with HeLa cells, what would you do?

2. What clairs do Henrietta Lacks' children have with regard to their mother's cells? With regard to the money made from those cells?

3. Discuss these issues in light of current public health views on social justice and healthcare disparity