Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - ENG-095

Discusses historic figure Henrietta Lacks whose cells from a cervical cancer biopsy, called HeLa cells, are reproduced and used as a standard in life science laboratories around the world.

In Focus: Science: How drug firms made millions from the death of one woman: Henrietta Lacks lies in an unmarked grave, but her tissues have transformed the fight against disease. Robin McKie reports on the remarkable story of ethics, medicine and money, now the subject of a bestselling book

Now that the NIH has reached an agreement with Henrietta Lacks' family concerning the use of the HeLa cell line, what lessons can we learn about informed consent and the unforeseen use of biological samples?

So much has been written about Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks that it is difficult to offer fresh insight on this “science book” that has had a remarkable run on the New York Times best-seller lists. Yet it is worth examining how Skloot’s telling of Henrietta’s story illustrates, and provides an excellent opportunity to teach, feminist approaches in bioethics. This is especially true since research ethics is an arena in which feminist insights have played a less explicit role than in other bioethical domains.

Discusses how Journalist Rebecca Skloot’s new book investigates how a poor black tobacco farmer had a groundbreaking impact on modern medicine.

Features an interview conducted with Henrietta Lacks' daughter, Deborah Lacks-Pullum, more than 40 years after Henrietta's death. It describes the measures taken by the family to gain recognition for her contribution to science and medicine.

This is from Ebony magazine and identifies Henrietta by name. The article includes pictures of the four adult Lacks children.

Contains family interviews and photos of the Lacks family.

This 76-page PDF reports, among other matters, on conditions at Baltimore's five public hospitals, including Crownsville Hospital, a state-run mental hospital.