BHS Day 5: Henrietta Lacks

Hi! Every Monday this month we'll be talking about a Black pioneer in the Education, Legal or Medical fields. Our first ELM entrant is someone who made huge strides in the Medical field, but not by being a medical professional. She became a medical pioneer not by choice, but because someone took from her without her consent. The decision to do that, while unarguably unethical and disrespectful to today's entrant, ultimately paved the way for so many invaluable medical treatments, vaccines and studies that are still being used today. It was custom practice back then to take samples from patients without needing to tell them but today's entrant created a very important precedent and opened the door to developing ethics and understanding the importance of a person's consent when obtaining samples. Today's entrant may not have intended or even expected to become a pioneer, but she is. Despite achieving medical immortality today, she is but a footnote in many health lessons on cells. I never learned about her at all, and considering how important the HeLa cell now is to the medical industry, it doesn't strike me as a coincidence that the owner of said cells was forgotten about over time. 
Her cells, not her, were the only thing being focused on and the doctor who made the decision to take her cells from her without her knowledge or consent felt the same way. Black women were guinea pigs, experiment subjects. Less than. This is documented in the career highlights of several prominent doctors who are now considered pioneers of their respective fields. We were segregated at hospitals, not given the same treatment as Caucasian patients, and therefore our consent was not needed or wanted. Johns Hopkins, the hospital where the cells were obtained, maintains that they never used the cells for profit but gave them freely for scientific research. I don't know how I feel about that and for some strange reason, it actually makes me a little angry. I know they said that in an effort to quell anger on the subject and not look like they were trying to profit, but it had the opposite effect on me. As much as the HeLa cell line has changed the medical industry forever, I can't help but feel conflicted at how the cells were obtained and all the trouble her family has gone through since then. I've ranted enough. It's pretty amazing to think that the face of modern medicine is a Black woman and I'm excited to learn about everything her cells were able to do. I strongly encourage checking out today's further reading links at the bottom of the post; although I'm going to include quite a bit about her, I left some things off so that you could read them. Anyway! Let's get to the actual post, shall we? 

Name: Henrietta "HeLa" Lacks, 1920-1951

Profession: Tobacco farmer

Why is the Spotlight on her today? For her inadvertent contributions to the medical field, which revolutionized the industry and led to the development of many invaluable breakthroughs and vaccines, which are still in use today

Notables:
--the HeLa cell line became so pivotal to medical research and development because of how her cells worked; her cells reproduced a new generation every twenty-four hours, essentially becoming 'immortal' 
--was one of the first cell lines to remain alive outside of the body, infinitely increasing the success of medical studies and research
--the HeLa cells were used in the development of the polio vaccine
--was honored along with her family in the Smithsonian Museum for Henrietta's contribution to the advancement of medical studies
--the HeLa line of cells are now considered industry standard when it comes to testing and doing research for a number of diseases
--is the posthumous namesake of the Henrietta Lacks Symposiums, which are two annual events held to discuss ethics in medical research and another to teach students about the importance of bioethics and biomedical research
--the HeLa cells have helped doctors and scientists learn about and treat HIV, Zika, various kinds of cancer, including cervical (which ironically and tragically was what killed Henrietta), Parkinson's disease, the flu, blood disorders, mumps, STDs and appendicitis, just to name a few, which led to the development of vaccines, medicine and cures for them
--the HeLa cells have even been sent into space to test zero gravity's effects on cells
--had a best-selling book, documentary and biopic released about her life
--is the posthumous namesake of the Henrietta Lacks Foundation, which seeks to provide financial assistance to low-income people who contributed to medicine or science without their consent, like Henrietta
--the HeLa line helped scientists and doctors to study how viruses grow, thrive and die in the body as well as other diseases and infections in order to learn how to properly treat them
--the HeLa cells helped teach about HPV and develop a vaccine for it
--were part of the first known human-animal hybrid cell fusions after being joined with those of a mouse to learn about human mapping, which led to the development of human genome maps
--is also the posthumous namesake of a health sciences scholarship awarded to students of an East Baltimore high school who intend to major in science in college
--was finally able to receive a bit of justice thanks to the NIH in 2013, when they entered into an agreement with Henrietta's family to introduce an application process to those who wish to do research using her genome rather than giving it out freely
--posthumously received an honorary degree from a university for her contributions
--the HeLa line of cells were the first to reveal the number of chromosomes in the human body
--is the posthumous namesake of a memorial award worth $15,000 that recognizes the collaboration between the local community and university groups

Further reading links:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7


Quote of the Day: 
"All I remember is that she had this disease, and right after she died they called me in the office trying to get my permission to take a sample of some kind. I decided not to let them."
--David Lacks, Henrietta's husband