Living Hero

Henrietta Lacks died of cancer in 1951, but her cells, known to scientists as HeLa, live on. Henrietta was a poor tobacco farmer, born in the Southern States, who worked the same land as her slave ancestors. She had a grade six education, and had given birth to five children by the time she died of cervical cancer at the age of 29.

The thing about Henrietta is that she and most of her children knew that they were brought into a world of adversity. She was black, in a times when colored people could not expect to recieve the same health care as their fellow white citizens. At John Hopkins Hospital, where Henrietta went for treatment of her cancer, black people were segregated into a separate ward. Henrietta was also poorly educated. She knew that she had a limited ability to understand what was killing her, and what the doctors were doing to her. Her chances of recieving the best treatment possible were nil. Thus, her chances of survival were slim. She also knew that the world she lived in, and the world she had brought her children into was riddled with the harsh realities of discrimination, poverty, lack of education, and dubious health care. Yet she soldiered on in her life, with hope, care, joy and courage.

When Henrietta lay dying in her hospital bed, a doctor took, without her knowledge, a sample of her cells. these cells became the first 'immortal' human cells grown in culture, and they are still alive today. These cells allowed scientists to make some vital advances in medicine; the polio vaccine was developed, cancer and viruses became better understood, great advances were made in the fields of in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping. I can't imagine how many lives in the world have been saved as a result. I know I can thank her for the polio vaccine, and for doctors being able to diagnose cervical cancer at a much earlier stage than Henrietta's was diagnosed - too late to save her.

It is a travesty that Henrietta's children grew up in the same conditions as she did. Lack of education and poverty, racial discrimitation have resulted in none of her children being able to afford the type of health care that many of us benefit from today-health care made possible through the use of their mother's 'immortal' cells. This is wrong. I'm sure that, had Henrietta been given the opportunity to give consent to her cells being used for research, she would have asked for one thing. If I had been in her place, I would have asked the doctor that if anything good came of the research on my cells, could he please ensure that my children, and their children be able to benefit from it. In order for that to happen, the doctor would have had to fight for universal health care, rather than health care for only those who could afford it. Henrietta's children could not afford health care. And the doctor would have had to fight for better education so that Henrietta's children could be in a better position to improve their circumstances, access their human rights, fight for what they knew to be right. But Henrietta's children did not even complete high school.

Before Deborah, Henrietta's oldest surviving daughter died in 2009, of health complications she couldn't afford to have properly treated, she told a friend, "It's too late for Henrietta's children. This story ain't about us anymore. It's about the new Lacks children." Those children, Henrietta's grandchildren and great-grandchildren, are about my own children's ages. Deborah is right, we can't undo what was done in the past. We have to make it right for the future.

Take the first step and read this book: 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks', by Rebecca Skloot. The author has established a scholarship fund for the descendants of Henrietta Lacks. Donations can be made at HenriettaLacksFoundation.Org.


Claire Finnamore
Studnet Member, Silent River Kung Fu