Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Left Out
Scientists forget that the samples they are working with come from a human being. Someone like them and not lab rats or fruit flies. The use of HeLa cells has aided in many discoveries. Its upsetting to see a family without health care and other survival needs we view as standard. The only reason the Lacks family found out about Henrietta's cells was do to the post-doc calling and wanting to take more samples from the family to aid in their research. The applications with HeLa cells was done with good intentions but the way it was done was unethical.
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It is really sad to hear that after Henrietta died the Gey lab called to ask to get more cells from her organs. Although it did seem like Mary did have a bit of remorse to be able to finally see that HeLa were more than just cells as she was performing the biopsy. She was finally able to put a face to those valuable cells. It is very sad that the Gey lab didn't seem to appreciate or care about the person that the cells came from when she was very sick and in pain.
ReplyDeleteSometimes some scientists forget about where samples or the things they are working with come from. Maybe these researchers got caught up with their work and did not stop to think about how they got the samples. The Gey lab treated her like a tree they could go to to pick more apples whenever they needed more. Like something they could use whenever they wanted. I still think her family should receive something in gratitude for the use of her cells because they were involved in huge discoveries.
ReplyDeleteI agreed with Roland Berg in saying that when writing an article about the HeLa cells that he must acknowledge the basic human elements (Henrietta herself) of those cells. However, when I thought more about it, maybe it was best that her doctors didn't release her name to the magazine because it would have been very difficult for the family when people (including researchers) would keep bothering them about the cells (as we have seen so far). On the other hand, the family does have the right to know about it. I guess I see both sides of the argument in this case.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Thien, the family does have the right to know about the cells. No matter how small the sample might be or from what part or the body it comes from, the donor (or the donors family if the person is deceased), should be informed on how and why it is being used.
ReplyDeleteScientists, including us, do forget where the samples come from when we are experimenting on them. Even look at us with our lab experiments, the week after we did our chick embryo primary culture we didn't think about how sad it was that we killed the tiny little chicks anymore, we were just worried about taking care of our cultures. And after we got our cells out of the HUMAN liposuction fat we didn't think twice about were they came from, that they came from another person, we were just worried about getting everything we needed to get done on them done. Just like in the book we were to pre-occupied with what we were doing with the cells to worry about where they came from.
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