Henrietta Lacks Research Paper

Words: 479
Pages: 2

Henrietta Lacks lived a short life and was limited by cancer in the last years of her life. As she was diagnosed with cancer, she was treated poorly and experimented on in ways that would now be considered inhumane. While she went through treatment to rid her body of cancer, she lacked the proper care due to the employees of the hospital being engulfed in the medical discoveries achieved through experimenting on her cancer cells. Henrietta’s cancer cells were undying, as they constantly reproduced, which is exactly what George Gey had been trying to create years before her admission into the hospital. The Lacks family was not notified that other were profiting from Henrietta’s cells and they had not even been told that the research was taking place. …show more content…
When her cells were taken and doctors discovered the amazing properties within those cells, they focused their attention on them instead of her. As a result of her mistreatment, Henrietta died and her death had no negative repercussions for the hospital or its employees. Such an act of cruelty should have lead to the downfall of the irresponsible medical facility. Not only should the hospital have suffered, but the neglect of the patients should have badly damaged the reputation of the employees.
George Gey was a doctor who had been striving to create the endless line of cells that Henrietta had provided him with. Once the immortal cells were developed, the doctors lost control of them. This means that the cells had spread through the world infecting millions of people with no way to stop it. The carelessness led to an uncontrollable outbreak and scientists were now scrambling for a solution to the problem they had