Henrietta Lacks

Heard of her? No, well don't feel bad. I hadn't either until I watched a special on 60 min a couple of weeks ago. Henrietta saved many lives, but she never knew it. Her story begins in the early 1950s in Baltimore. She moved there with her husband and 5 children. Soon after she arrived she felt a lump in her belly. She had cervical cancer and was admitted to the "colored" ward of Johns Hopkins University Hospital. Eight months later she died and this is when Henrietta Lacks' legacy really begins.
Pap smears were begun in the 1940s and it had become common practice to do them to every woman that walked in. You see doctors had been trying to grow human cells for many years, but couldn't even keep the cells alive a few days. A lab tech discovered something remarkable about Henriettas cells.....they never died. In fact they are still living today 60 years later. They are called HeLa cells (for Henrietta Lacks) and are sold $250 dollars for a vile. A factory was set up soon after the discovery in Alabama to grow her cells for research. The lab was producing over 3 trillion cells a week and sending them all over the world. The HeLa cells have been used to develop cancer drugs and for Parkinsons disease. It is sad that Henrietta never knew that she was helping millions of people 60 years after her death. But here is the worst part...her family didn't either. Not until 25 years ago when a scientist called her husband and wanted to check their children's cells. The Lacks family has never been paid or anything for the use of the cells. This fact is very heartbreaking because the Lacks family is apparently very poor and cannot afford healthcare. Hopefully since this story came out something will be done about this. There was no consent back in the 1950s so basically scientist and doctors could take what they wanted. I feel that the family has a right to those cells and should be compensated fairly. Someone should right this wrong pronto.