Henrietta Lacks’ legacy collision of medicine, ethics and race – nwitimes.com

GARY Immortality comes with a catch. Something may be taken without your say. Even your loved ones wont learn about it until decades later.

So it was for the family of Henrietta Lacks, a poor black tobacco farmer. But theyre making up now.

In 1951, doctors removed cells from Lacks cancer-stricken body without her knowledge or permission. Generations later, those cells continue to be valuable tools in biomedical research.

Bad things happen to good people, so great things can be done, said Veronica Robinson, Lacks great-granddaughter. You can be part of science and see its not all that bad.

Robinson and Shirley Lacks, Henrietta Lacks daughter-in-law, addressed this collision of medicine, ethics, and race Wednesday at Indiana University Northwest. The Lacks family legacy, Robinson said, is not about what happened, but how we overcame it.

With recognition for Henrietta Lacks now coming nationally, Shirley Lacks noted, Henrietta has helped all mankind. Theres not one person who hasnt been touched or doesnt know someone touched by the HeLa cell.

Henrietta Lacks, who died in 1951 at age 31, was the unwitting donor of cells from a cancerous tumor biopsied during treatment for cervical cancer at Baltimores Johns Hopkins Hospital. Of the two samples removed from Lacks cervix, one was healthy tissue, but the other sample was cancerous. Dr. George Otto Gey, a cancer researcher at Johns Hopkins, cultured the cancerous sample into what became known as the HeLa immortal cell line.

HeLa has since been used in the polio vaccine, gene mapping, and in vitro fertilization research benefiting countless numbers of patients.

Although family members did not learn of their matriarchs contribution until 1975, today they are sharing Henrietta Lacks story, which has also been chronicled in the best-selling book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. An HBO movie about Lacks starring Oprah Winfrey will air April 22.

Robinson said the Lacks family today has a cordial relationship with Johns Hopkins Hospital, which has not financially compensated the family. Although she feels the family should receive something for Henrietta Lacks, she also believes the world got her best part.

When asked about race, Robinson is convinced that race was a factor in the 1951 medical procedure, while Shirley Lacks believes the issue is not about race per se, but rather about a doctor searching for a cancer cure.

The biggest impact of the Henrietta Lacks story, Robinson noted, has to do with medical ethics and humanity. These people (patients) are somebody who matters, she said. You need to treat them like you want to be treated. You need to tell them exactly what youre doing to them. Give them the right to understand.

The March 22 program concluded this years One Book One Campus One Community reading initiative at IUN. Attending were nursing students, including sophomore Amanda Pogue, who focused on ethics in the Skloot book.

Pogue, from Portage, said, Looking back 50 years ago, people are asking, 'How could they ethically do that?' Looking ahead, what will future generations say about what we do?

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Henrietta Lacks' legacy collision of medicine, ethics and race - nwitimes.com