The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

      I have been reading an incredibly interesting book that I may tie to my senior paper called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This book is centered around a poor woman, Henrietta Lacks, who falls victim to a deadly case of cervical cancer. Her doctor kept a culture of her cancer cells without her consent which, after Henrietta’s death, he discovered to have an amazing trait, immortality. Well a type of immortality, the cells would never stop reproducing given sufficient food. These HeLa cells have proven to have a remarkable effect on cancer research and indeed all medical research. HeLa cells have an active version of telomerase during cell division, which prevents the incremental shortening of telomers that is implicated in aging and eventual cell death. In this way, HeLa cells circumvent the Hayflick Limit, which is the limited number of cell divisions that most normal cells can later undergo before becoming senescent.

            I find this to be a very interesting topic that could relate to a science centered senior paper. I had not originally planned this to be related to the paper, but it has inspired a newfound interest in cancer and medical research and how it is so closely related to HeLa cells. Alternatively, I could base my paper around the ethical implications of the Henrietta Lacks story that brings up important ‘do the ends justify to means?’ questions. Is such research and scientific research worth violating a patients privacy rights? Do the cells belong to Henrietta’s family? Should they be compensated for the significant use of these cells? These are all critical questions I could base my senior paper around.