I really enjoyed the last five chapters. It delved a little more deeper into the lives of Henrietta's children and the implications of the HeLa cells. What are your thoughts? Please be a little more insightful in your post. I want to read specifics about the importance of the HeLa cells and the bioethics of using the HeLa cells.
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Can't wait to read your thoughts.
I loved these chapters! I believe that HeLa cells were benificial to many different vaccines and the treatment of patiens, including doctor-patient confidentiality. HeLa cells led to the HPV vaccine because scientists found that she had a strain of the HPV virus, specifically HPV-18. Henrietta actually had multiple copies of HPV-18. With that they were able to create a vaccine for the Human Papilloma Virus. Henrietta's cells also led to the Polio vaccine many years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe HeLa cells were also very benificial to ethics. They led to various acts and laws that made doctors get consent for taking someone's cells, blood, or any other tissues (i.e. Protection of Human Subjects in Medical Experimentation Act of 1978). This act required that the research on humans respect the "right of individuals to determine what is done to their own bodies". Like today, people were now able to decide and say what doctors and researchers could do with cells, tissue, blood, bone marrow, etc. HeLa cells have single-handedly been one of the most benificial discoveries and finding in the scientific world (Vaccines and Bioethics).
I loved this chapters also. I think these laws were essential. They gave patients more rights. Back in the day, patients didnt really have any rights to their tissues after they left their body. For example, Moore couldnt even win a case; suing over his own tissue !
DeleteIt should have been illegal for scientists and doctors to use peoples tissues without their knowledge. This was not ethical at all. I believe Moore should have won both cases, and Golde shouldnt have won his appeal. Although Golde gave Moore a consent form, Golde was still wrong. I found it interesting how although Zakkariya knew what doctors did to his mother, he still went to them for research. I think it makes sense because he needed the money. HE had a lot of hatred in his heart towards his father, which is not good at all.
ReplyDeleteHausen took the time to try and figure out how Henrietta got her cancer. This was the most concern from any scientist, that I read about. I appreciate how he wanted to figure out what was wrong with Henrietta. In the long run Henrietta had HPV, which caused her to get cervial cancer.
I agree with your take on the court case involving Moore and Golde. I feel that Moore should have given Golde full permission before the research was conducted. However, although this seemed immoral and inhumane, the outcome was rather positive. Millions of people were saved due to the vaccines derived from the cells, and he made alot of money.
DeleteI agree with you on the issue of ethics. It was very uneasy reading about doctors would just perform certain experiments without a patient's knowledge. Some may argue that Golde was working to help advance science but I think he was just acting upon his own selfish reasoning, wanting to get rich and famous. And I agree on the case of Zakkariya too. It was sad to see that he blamed his father for Henrietta's death. Even though, if you think about it realistically, the infections that Day gave to Henrietta could have contributed to her getting cancer.
DeleteWhen it relates to Zakkariya, it was very surprising how he still went to the doctors for reseach to get some money, eventhough he knew what they had done to his mother. It is quite interesting to see this element of people that is never really discussed or tended to when it comes to people in tough situations. People tend to end up doing things that they do not want to do, but given the right circumstance, they could be coerced into doing it just to survive. I do agree with you that his hate for his father was very unhealthy due to it being family and him not knowing that his father didn't really know what he was doing.
ReplyDeleteThis was supposed to be a reply to Jaida's post. I can't delete it from my phone so its gonna stay like this
DeleteI found these chapters rather interesting, but chapter 25 really seemed to stick out. As I was reading, I felt that I saw both sides: patients vs. the doctors. I felt that, if a doctor were to take a patients cells, tissues, blood, etc., and used them for research or inventions, that the patient should be notified and should give consent. It seems to be the moral thing to do.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I also see where the doctors and researchers are coming from. It is rather difficult to retrieve the consent from every single donor. I can also see how this law would hinder the advancement of medical procedures. If the patient isn't directly being affected, why should it matter what happens to parts of their body?
i agree. This was the patient vs. doctor chapter. John Moore wasn't easily fooled and he eventually rose up and fought back his unethical doctor. This eventually sparked a movement that allowed all patients to patent their tissue and it brought notice to the situation with HeLa cells.
DeleteThese last few chapters were truly interesting. I thought it was horrendous how Dr. Golde had been marketing Moore's cells as a cell line called Mo without his knowledge. It really opened my eyes as what doctors were capable of back then and its appalling to know that they were willing to do such things. Some would argue that it was to better science but it was real life people that the doctors were working with, using parts of their bodies for unknown reasons. Its a bit scary to think one day a part of your spleen could be used to make some type of vaccine or cure and you not even be aware of it. Also, I was surprised at the publication of several detail of Henrietta's medical records and the fact that the family wasn't aware of it either. This just makes me not like Golde's character at all. I feel as though the family should have been informed about such delicate information being released or asked for some kind of consent to release it. It just makes you wonder how the family must have felt to read such frightening details about Henrietta's sickness with no prior knowledge of knowing it was available for the world to see. I was relieved to know that laws were made to prevent something like this from occurring again. I was also intrigued to find out that out of all the other diseases and infections Henrietta had, that it was actually HPV that played the role in causing her to ger cervical cancer. This led to vaccines being created to help cure HPV. HeLa cells are really a remarkable thing.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I couldn't help myself from wondering what if I was in the position of a vulnerable African American merely visiting the doctor's back then; could I have been taken advantage of? It's horrible and unjust and touché, I didn't know doctors had such capability back then.
DeleteYes white doctors did alot of things to African Americans because of the time of racisism. Also the doctors did not tell what they were putting in their patients and the African American patients could not qeustion people of time. So the white doctors would have probably told them one thing but would probably giving the patients the cancer virus. Also a lot of these white doctors didn't really care either. Same with them not carring for Henrietta when she had problem with radiation. The doctors didn't take care of the problem as soon as possible
DeleteI enjoyed these few chapters greatly mostly because of the equal amount of spot light put on Henriette's children as well as the science behing HeLa cells. These chapter also finally answered my question: why were Henrietta's cells immortal? At first i thought that it was a mutation paired with the malignancy of the cancerous cells, but it turned out to be her malignant cancer combined with a VIRUS! just a virus, specifically HPV-18 or Human Papilloma Virus 18 discovered by Harald zur Hausen. The virus had essentially inserted itself into her cells and turned off her body's ability to suppress the growth of tumors in her body, this then allowed me to understand why cancer had so aggressively taken over her body. After learning the secret behind her mortality, anther questioned started swirling around my head. Hausen said that he had discovered a new strain of HPV, but why did HeLa, harvested decades ago, happen to have had that new strain? Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteHeLa cause a lot of uproar with ethics in the scientific community that many scientists absolutely hated. One people had heard of HeLa cells, people started to protect themselves against greedy unethical doctors and taking precautions to make sure that their cells did not end up being sold for millions without their consent and a fair share. John Moore happened to be at the center of this battle and he eventually won. This eventually led to the government allowing people to patent their own tissue. I also liked how Deborah eventually opened up to Skloot about her mother and Skloot didn't take advantage of her by hiding information like many other before her.
These last five chapters really captivated me as the ethics to the entire thing were finally put upon a pedestal and into the spotlight. The book mentions two other men that had contributed to the development of biological research in one way or the other. In the case of John Moore, the doctors had been aware of the possible financial benefit from Moore's bodily tissues and fluids at the time of obtaining medical consent but neglected to disclosed this to Moore. This lack of informed consent however did not help him as he lost his lawsuit. However, in the case of Ted Slavin, he became the first to maintain complete control over any blood and tissues removed from his body. He would determine who used them for research, how and, most important to Slavin, who made money from them.
ReplyDeleteThis is all interesting that these were both white males, so it is very possible that them being white allowed them to have some fight against their cells being used for profits without their consent. Taking all of this into account, it makes me see that really no matter if the family did try to make a claim to some profits made off of the HeLa cells, it would have been just a waste of time due to the somewhat unethical approach of the doctors. Another interesting thing was the HeLa cells combined with a virus that technically was not identified until around the 1980's. I believed the cancerous cells had slightly mutated by themselves and this caused the immortality. A thought that I had while reading these last few chapters was," Hey, this is the 70's and 80's. Did the rest of the world know all of the specifics about this? If not this had the potential to begin some even worse tensions and possibly even start a war."
I believe Lacks paved the way for so many to fight their own battles and win them for rights to their own bodies. We have too many doctors around the world denying patients rights, and its time someone stood up for what rightly belongs to them.
Deletei agree with caitlin because if it wasnt for the lacks then doctors would still be able to control the patients and just take what they need instead of saying what they need to do in order to make a patient get right and also keeping there cells. without a patients permission they cant do anything.
DeleteFirst and foremost I'd like to apologize for this late blog entry.
ReplyDeleteIt is in these few chapters readers are able to enlighten themselves with the origin and what consists of the HeLa cells in depth as well as the mindset of the Lacks family, particularly Deborah.
In the ' Secret of Immortality,' Skloot wrote that a German virologist discovered a new strain of sexually transmitted virus; HPV -18. An experiment was embarked on with the HeLa cells and it evoked that Henrietta has been infected with multiple copies of HPV-18, portraying that HPV primarily inserts DNA into the DNA host cell and produces proteins that lead to cancer. I think this discovery is a somewhat revolution to science; it showed that if scientists blocked the HPV DNA, Henrietta's cells would not have been cancerous.
Something that really caught my eyes was the discovery of telomerase- I think of it as a ticking clock. It is befuddling and amazing how Henrietta's cells kept regenerating because of the lasting presence of the telomerase. This astute discovery made me inquire the question if scientists found a way to inject telomerase into our chromosomes; could it lead to human immortality?
The mindset of the Lacks family- to myself- is unpragmatic, obscure and somewhat bigoted. As I previously stated, Deborah Lacks seemed to lack the simplest foundation of knowledge, so much so that she cannot differentiate fiction from non fiction. Her knowledge evokes the utter confusion the Lacks' family seems to have of the HeLa cells as well as the failure to grasp the simplest of concepts regarding the cells. When Skloot tried to correct Deborah, Deborah refused to acknowledge the truth and preferred to stay in her bubble of oblivion.
The bioethics of the HeLa cells led to the discovery of 'fluorescence in situ hybridization' which uncovered the detailed information about one's DNA. I think that is really interesting how colourful dyes could denote the components of DNA.
I'm so glad a doctor finally stepped up and decided to allow the under educated Lacks family insight into exactly what contributions their mother made. The florescent DNA was a really nice touch, and showed them something physical of their mother, which is more than they could have said for the others that had exposure to her cells. Her family's battles also allowed other to be informed and win their own battles for rights to their body parts.
ReplyDeleteDeborah's story touched my heart, and I'm so glad that her family has the ability to move on with their lives knowing their mother's history. She was more than just a bunch of cells, a single picture of a woman with her hands on her hips. She was a person, with a wonderful story to go along with her. I hope others can enjoy this book as much as I have.
Little tibdit I thought you guys would enjoy: My friend the microbiologist? She runs tests on HeLa cells every Tuesday and Thursday, because she is trying to develop a vaccine for a respiratory disease.
i agree when reading this book i had to constantly remind myself that this was real that this actully occur and is the life of a woman and a family. i think it was important for the lacks family to see the impact heneritta had on the medical world to see that even though the doctors voilated their rights that some good came out of it. that it helped a lot of people and made a impact on thousands of vaccines.
Deletei really enjoyed these chapters but i feel like Golde should have went to jail for what he was doing to Mr.Moore especially because your telling this man that your fixing when your actually just trying to start a cell line.even though Moore cells were helping cure disesase Golde should have told him before he did anything. and i do feel like Golde should have got charged with theft because he was taking someone elses property.
ReplyDeletein the chapters it talked about a german virologist by the name of Harald zur Hausen and that he had discovered the Human Papilloma virus 18 (HPV-18) it was interesting that when they blocked the HPV DNA, cervial cancer cells stop. the virus had inserted its DNA into the long arm of her eleventh chrosmosome and thats how they discovered heneriette cancer cancer started.
Its wonderful that the Lacks can now move on with there lives now that they have closure about there mother and her cells.
i really liked these chapters i really like the part on patient and doctor ethics. i fell like the docotors should be more involed in informing their patients about what there doing and what they are taking. like with what happened to morre, golde should have done a betteer job of telling him what he was doing because it is his cells not goldes. i kinda see why dodctors do it to help futher medical advancement but still its their ethical job to make sure that they sign consent forms and keep the patient informed on everything not just half of it.
ReplyDelete