Poor Black southern Virginia tobacco farmer HENRIETTA LACKS' cancer and normal body cells were essential in developing the polio vaccine and have been used in numerous other landmark scientific and medical developments such as cloning, gene mapping, and even in vitro fertilization.
In 1951, a scientist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in baltimore, "created" the first immortal human cell line with a tissue sample taken from the then 31-year old Lacks who was suffering from terminal cervical cancer. Her permission was not asked, nor given. She died from the dreadful illness that year.
Those cells from Ms. Lacks, named " HeLa cells ", immediately became invaluable to medical research --- though involuntary donor Henrietta Lacks' contributions remained a mystery for decades.
No one knows why, but Ms. Lacks' amazing cells NEVER DIED. They were, therefore, the first
"immortal" human cells ever grown in culture (i.e., in the laboratory).
Now, for the first time, an agreement has been reached between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the family heirs of Henrietta Lacks to give her family some "say" (input) over " some
research involving her cells". Pursuant to the agreement two(2) Lacks family members will sit on a 6-member committee that will regulate access to the genetic code.
Henrietta Lacks' "HeLa cells" are the most widely used human cell line in existence in the whole world today. However, Ms. Lacks died of her cervical cancer disease without knowing about her
enormous contributions to science and medicine with her cells. Further, her family members did not learn of them until at least 25 years later.
[The Henrietta Lacks Foundation; www.smithsonianmag.com/January 22, 2010/ "Cracking The Code
of the Human Cell: Henrietta Lacks' 'Immortal' Cells"; The Washington Post/Thursday, August 8, 2013/ p. A3/ " NIH, Lacks Family Reach Deal On Use Of DNA Code"; The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot]
Attorney Charles Jerome Ware is also an award-winning author of 5 best-selling books. His national law firm is headquarterd in Columbia, Howard County, Maryland. Attorney Ware can be reached at
www.charlesjeromeware.com, (410) 730-5016, (410) 720-6129.
No comments:
Post a Comment