HeLa cells and tissue characteristics

Henrietta Lacks born August 1, 1920, was an African-American female tobacco farmer who resided in Dundalk, Maryland. She was wife to her first cousin and mother of five children. At the age of 31, Lacks died from cervical cancer. Before she died, a doctor took a sample of her cervical cells. These cells, named HeLa cells, became the immortal cell line that provided a Polio vaccine, aided in cloning, among other scientific breakthroughs. "Henrietta's cells were the first immortal human cells ever grown in culture. They were essential to developing the polio vaccine" (Zielinski, 2010).

HeLa cells have become a benchmark in the study of cellular processes. However, here in lies the controversy. HeLa cells have benefitted many except for the family of the person the sample was derived from. Henrietta Lacks' children, for decades, lived in poverty, with one son homeless. Was it right for a doctor to, without permission, take a sample from a patient, and then have this sample commercialized and turned into a profitable venture?

First, one must examine the formation of the name HeLa as well as where the cells came from on her body. As Skloot explains: "It is given the name HeLa after the first two initials of Henrietta's first and last names. Henrietta Lacks dies of an unusually aggressive strain of cervical cancer" (Skloot, 2010, p. 333). Second is where the cells were harvested from. HeLa cells were sampled from Lacks' cervix: two dime sized samples cut from the tumor and the from normal cervical tissue. The tissue from the tumor was cancerous and developed into an unusually aggressive strain causing cells harvested from the cervix to remain immortal, thus granting people who used them a plethora of discoveries and information on a variety of things from cloning to identification of hormone processes.

Many uses came from these cells. For instance, scientists wanted to observe cell activity in zero gravity so they used the HeLa cells by sending them in one of the first space missions. Other scientific landmarks such as gene mapping and in vitro fertilization came from HeLa cells. HeLa cells became the perfect way to observe and study things in culture. Skloot explains in The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, the characteristics of HeLa cells and why they were and are used so often.

HeLa still shared many basic characteristics with normal cells: They produced proteins and communicated with one another like normal cells, they divided and generated energy, they expressed genes and regulated them, and they were susceptible to infections, which made them an optimal tool for synthesizing and studying any number of things in culture, including bacteria, hormones, proteins, and especially viruses (Skloot, 2010, p. 97).

The HeLa greatly impacted the medical and scientific community. Conversely it was not until recently people knew where these cells originated from. For decades doctors, scientists, etc., benefitted from research stemming from use of these cells. They gained fame, recognition, and money. The benefits from HeLa cells have been continual, except for the Lacks family.

The book by Skloot titled: The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks shed light on the identity of the donor of the immortal cell line spawning interest in Henrietta and her family. With success of the book came people who wished to compensate the family out of guilt for the Lacks' continual poverty. They did so through providing a foundation aiding the Lacks family in obtaining scholarships and health insurance and giving two member of the family a place on the board that controlled the use of HeLa cells. One person even donated a headstone for Henrietta Lacks' grave.

Another reason people feel strongly over the HeLa is the racial undertones of the Lacks family story. A statement made by Skloot shares possible race issues of HeLa cell use: "Black scientists and technicians, many of them women, used cells from a black woman to help save the lives of millions of Americans, most of them white" (Skloot, 2010, p. 97). Many people, white, benefitted from a black woman's cancer cells all while that black woman's family suffered in poverty.

The race issue along with the involuntary donation sparked controversy with the case of Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells because it seemed unfair that Lacks and her family did not receive any compensation from such a profitable and highly used cell line. However Skloot makes clear that, under present law, once tissues are sampled from a person's body, they are no longer regarded as that person's property -- nevertheless they can come to be the property of someone else. Even if Henrietta Lacks' appears to be an exception to the rule because the tissues were harvested without consent, she did receive some form of compensation for her donation. The book discusses her treatment at John Hopkins. She received the best, yet ultimately ineffective, treatment they had at the time for free since she lacked health insurance. Because patients like her received free medical care, doctors did not feel wrong about collecting tissue samples without permission. Even when the cells were sampled and used by the researchers, they were only made profitable by the companies that sold the cells, not by the researchers who performed the actions that made the cells famous.

So although it seems right to compensate the Lacks family for the involuntary donation, the law and the process of making the cells profitable sides against them. The Lacks are not legally entitled for compensation (Truog, 2012, pp. 37-38). Whoever made the cells profitable and then established property rights to the cells owns the right to be compensated. This because they took the steps necessary to popularize the cells, commercialize them, and make them a viable and profitable selling point.

It takes a lot to make something profitable. Years, decades of research have transformed simple cells into a famous cell line. However there should be some restrictions in place, or in the very least, some policy reform. Donators should be told where their tissue may end up and for what purposes it will be used. Stronger informed consent policies must take effect in order to prepare the donator for any possible feelings towards a donation, especially the family of the people that donate (Siminoff, 2013, pp. 87). They should also keep the cells anonymous to avoid any future incidences such as the Lacks family and the HeLa cells.