In the 1960s the HeLa cells were everywhere. In the 1960s the scientist wondered since the cells grew so fast and lived on earth so well if they would live in space. They got the idea to send the Hela cells to space. They sent several vials into space by the Discoverer XVII when it went. They discovered that when the HeLa cells went to space they became more powerful and divided faster every time they went to space. Several years later in 1965 they took equal amounts from the HeLa cells and cells from a mouse. The scientists done this to study to see what the genes would do. Harris also took HeLa cells and chicken cells, but they discovered they couldn’t reproduce. When Deborah was only sixteen she became pregnant with her first child by Cheetah and boy she liked when she was younger. Cheetah and Deborah got married and then had their second child. Deborah became very unhappy in the marriage because Cheetah started drinking and doing drugs. He started abusing Deborah. Cheetah pushed Deborah so much she almost killed him if it wasn’t for Bobbette. Deborah’s brothers Sonny and Lawrence were doing well except for Joe. Joe was another case. Joe went to the military, and the family was hoping that would do him good; but he came out worse than when he went in. Joe was threatened and beaten up by a boy named Ivy. Joe was in so much rage he went and stabbed him and killed him. Joe eventually turned himself in to the law, was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced fifteen years in prison. A man named Gartler was doing some research, he was trying to find new genetic markers. When he was doing his research he discovered that eighteen of the most commonly used cells had one thing in common. He found a thing that was G6PD-A this ... ... middle of paper ... ...ave. They have been through a lot by people asking over and over about the HeLa cells. I think the least the doctors could do is tell them the actual truth about how they used those cells and stop making them guess or always wonder. I think they should have told them when they come to get the blood what they were actually using it for. They may not have understood, but the least they could do is tell them. They could have told them they wasn’t taking their blood to see if they had cancer they should have told them they were taking it for the HeLa cells. I think it was a good thing when I found out that Gey was actually doing research on the cells and not actually trying to get money. I thought this whole time he was probably getting money from it. I think when he was doing his research he was actually trying to help people, not put the Lack’s family through so much.
The family first heard that Henrietta’s cells were alive and being sent around the world, twenty-two years after Henrietta’s death. After discovering that Henrietta’s cells were in circulation, the family began to blame John Hopkins for taking Henrietta’s cells without permission and commercializing the cells to make multi-million dollar industry, while her family was living in poverty without health insurance. The John Hopkins Hospital has made various statements stating that the hospital never received funds for the HeLa cells specifying that Gey donated all of his HeLa cells samples to fellow researchers. Therefore, the sole benefactors of the HeLa cells profits are the biotechnology companies, which sell vials of HeLa cells for up to ten thousand
In “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” Rebecca Skloot describes the life of an African American woman named Henrietta Lacks whose “immortal” cells changed both the field of science and her family’s lives forever. When Henrietta Lacks passed away due to cervical cancer at the young age of 31, her family accepted the fact that she was gone forever. However, little did they know that during her treatments, George Gey, a doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital, took a sample of Henrietta’s cells and named them HeLa in hopes of finding one that multiplied infinitely. Suddenly, worldwide factories began to grow HeLa and began selling them to scientists for testing. During this process, Henrietta’s husband and 5 children had absolutely no idea that Henrietta’s cells were still alive because few knew the actual name of the patient who HeLa came from. Eventually, they found out and were furious at Johns Hopkins and refused to speak to anyone who wanted information on Henrietta. Throughout the book, Rebecca Skloot struggles
In 1970 physicians realized that she had been misdiagnosed and actually had an adenocarcinoma. Adenocarcinoma is a type of cancer formed from glands in epithelial tissue. Lacks was treated with radium tube inserts in the hospital and was discharged a few days later with instructions to return for X-ray treatments as a follow-up. During her treatments, two samples were taken from Lacks cervix without her permission or knowledge one sample was of healthy tissue and the other was cancerous. These samples were given to George Otto Gey. George Otto Grey was a physician and cancer researcher at Johns Hopkins hospital, the same hospital that Henrietta was admitted to.. The cells from the cancerous sample eventually became known as the “ HeLa” immortal cell line ,this cell was a commonly used cell line in biomedical research On August 8, 1951 Henrietta went to Johns Hopkins for a routine radiation treatment session and asked to be admitted due to continued severe abdominal pain“ by september , Henrietta’s body was almost entirely taken over by tumors…. They’d grown on her diaphragm, her bladder and her lungs”(Skloot
Abstract: Henrietta Lacks was born in Virginia on August 1, 1920. In 1941 she married her first cousin David Lacks. A mother of five, she went to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland on January 29, 1951, because she felt a knot in her stomach. Her family and her assumed she was pregnant, which was true, but after giving birth to her son she started to bleed abnormally. She was then referred to Johns Hopkins hospital where she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. The doctors treated her with radiation therapy and cut out samples from her cervix, these cells became known as the HeLa cells and have had an immense impact on medicine throughout history.
Rebecca Skloot describes the experimentation at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from the
Up until October 2, 2015, Javon was in the care of his maternal cousin, Diana Terrell. Ms. Terrell was awarded legal custody of Javon in 2007. Also in the home are Ms. Terrell’s 22 year old daughter and the daughter’s six year old son. Javon’s biological mother, Shanterri Banks, is reported to be somewhere in Texas. Javon maintains contact with her through occasional telephone calls. He last spoke with her in March 2014. Ms. Banks mental health issues are unknown. Reportedly, she was incarcerated in Texas. Ms. Terrell suspects it was for drug activity. Javon’s biological father, Eddie Melton, is reportedly local but it is not known in which city Mr. Melton resides. Javon sees his father occasionally. He last saw him in July 2012. Mr. Melton’s mental health and substance use issues are also unknown. Javon has two maternal sisters, ages eight and thirteen that reside in Chesapeake with extended family members. Javon is able to see his sisters at church
George Gey didn’t take the cells to make money. He gave the samples to anyone who wanted them, and had a reason to have them, for free. He never made a cent off of Henrietta’s cells. “Johns Hopkins never patented HeLa cells, and therefore does not own the right to the HeLa cell line. John Hopkins also did not sell or profit from the discovery or distribution of HeLa cells” (McDaniels 1). The people who got free samples of the cells were the people who made money of the cells. They started to produce the cells themself. Even though John Hopkins Hospital never made any money they aren’t innocent. They took the cells without Henrietta’s consent. They also lied to the family about taking blood samples from them. They had an asian woman call the family, and tell them that they were going to take blood samples from them to see if they were at risk of getting cancer. First off, the asian woman wasn’t good at speaking english so the family had a hard time understanding what they were actually doing. Second, they weren’t actually testing to see if they were at risk of getting cancer. They were actually using them for studying Henrietta’s cell line. The children’s cell line could help to compare the Henrietta’s cell line because they kids have some of the same cells that she has (McDaniels
Even with the numerous advancements that HeLa brings, “her family can’t afford to see [any] doctors” (8). Scientists believe that the family’s involvement would hinder the distribution of HeLa due to the questionable methods by which the cells are attained. According to the Common Rule, research “subjects must be allowed to withdraw from research at any time” (234). Theoretically, the Lacks family has the right to withdraw HeLa from worldwide medical research because Henrietta herself is no longer living. When Victor Mckusick requests the blood of the Lacks children for research, he does not explain to them “why he was having someone draw blood” from them (131). Mckusick could have informed them of the actual purpose of the blood tests, which would have been the morally-correct option; instead he keeps his motives hidden to prevent
In “A Conspiracy of Cells,” Gold focuses his writing about cancer research and “The War on Cancer.” He talks about chromosomes and how researchers thought it was strange that they were all female (lacking the Y-chromosome) and all the cells contained the same rare enzyme typically found in African Americans.
The family lives in a public housing subsidy tenement and received public assistance from the State. Her first child, who she called "Mongo", because she was born with a disease called Down syndrome lived with her grandmother, but on days the social worker would visit the grandmother would bring the child by to visit. Though the grandmother was very much aware of the abuse that was taking place in the home, she turned a blind eye. I personally think she was one of the contributor to the dysfunction, though it never show her hurt or abusing precious the fact that she pretend like everything was okay and would help the mother lie to the social worker, so she could continue to receive benefits from the state for her daughter and granddaughter show how e...
Jasmine Beckford’s case is the oldest out of the three; in 1984 Jasmine died as a result of long-term abuse aged 4. In 1981 her and her younger sister suffered serious injuries and were paced with foster carers for six months. After this they were allowed back home with their mother on a trial basis as social services were meant to support them. During the last ten months of Jasmine’s life she was only seen once by social workers (Corby, 2006).
Soon after realizing that these cells would continue to reproduce and grow, Gey started giving them away to scientists and researchers around the world who were interested in studying the first established human cell line. By having human cells that survived and grew outside of the human body, scientists could now perform tests on human cells that would not be possible or ethical to do on a living human, such as injecting carcinogens. Despite HeLa cells being cancerous, they still shared many basic characteristics of normal cells. At around the same time as HeLa was first being grown, Dr. Jonas Salk and Dr. William Scherer had created a polio vaccine. This vaccine had been tested on a few Rhesus monkeys to measure the quantity of antibody developed
The murder of JonBenet Ramsey was very shocking and caused a huge investigation that is yet unsolved. Family was one of the things that contributed to JonBenet’s murder. JonBenet Ramsey is a very special six-year-old girl with a successful family. She was a little pageant girl with blond curly hair and blue eyes; she was a very well known competitor since she had won many pageants (SV;SV) (Schneider). Her mother, Patsy Ramsey, was a former beauty queen; her father, John Ramsey, was a millionaire businessman (SV; SV) (Bardsley, and Bellamy).
6.) Gey hoped that they would be able to use HeLa cells too learn a way by which cancer cells can e damage or completely wiped out.
In 1982, at the age of fifthteen Debb ie Martinez of the Bronx, found out she was pregnant and was forced to drop out of school and move in with her boyfriend. She had a baby girl she named Jasmine. With little education and no job, it wasn’t easy for her to raise her child. She stayed at home caring for her daughter while her boyfriend worked. Since it was his house she had little say about anything that happened. He did as he pleased and came home with money only when he wanted to. Less then two years later she found herself about to raise another child. She had a baby girl she named Jennifer. She struggled to care for her two babies without much help from the father. It was then that she realized she had to do something to better her life.