Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks lived
her life as a typical young black lady in 1950s. She was a poor, but had a happy life with her
family until she discovered that she had a cervical cancer. At that time, Pap test system was not
popular for cervical cancer like today.
Cancer attacks anyone and any young lady who get cancer have a hard time
to survive even though today’s advanced medical environment because cancer is
strong and young like youthful people. They
progress faster and deeper into mature bodies.
However, Henrietta gives me a striking image as a healthy young woman
who dressed up like a businesswoman wearing official suits and high heel with
fashionable hair style on her picture.
She looks like smiling to me. She ended up her life as a person, but
left enormous contribution to our society in past, present and future. I admire her life and remember her name as
long as I live. Her name is Henrietta,
not science name of Hela.
It
does not matter how effective treatment was given to her, she could not live
longer time. Nevertheless, I feel sad
because she had to die under discrimination.
I wanted her to die proud of herself contributing society and she
deserved to get respect from doctors.
Without her knowledge, her cells were taken from her as the first
“immortal human cells” in the culture.
They are still alive today. At
least, her family should know it. HeLa cells were essential for developing the
polio vaccine, revealed cancer characteristics, viruses, and the atom bomb’s
effects, and used for in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping, and
have been bought and sold by the billions. Her cells have been contributing to
our world and producing lots of profits.
I hope that her family can reward from this. They deserve to receive part of profits to
live average life style, not poor like they live now.