Health Care Careers Diagram and Summary

The HeLa Cell 1

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Nkem J. Agocha
General Psychology -1010-XD 01
Professor Hunter,
March 29th , 2013.

The HeLa Cell 2

summery
The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks is about a poor black woman whose white doctors took her cervical cells on February 1,1951 without her knowledge and used it to consort a DNA research. The DNA research resulted in the discovering of polio vaccine. The “polio vaccine” has produced billions of dollars which has profited the researches, private institutes and was a cure to many diseases but unfortunately Henrietta’s family has no knowledge of this and benefited nothing ,and was still struggling in poverty.
The issues regarding informed consent, I believe, is the most important part of this book. If Ms Henrietta and her family had truly been informed and understood what was going to be done to her, there would be no story to tell and this book couldn’t have been produced . Henrietta was given a consent to sign at the admissions desk when she checked-in to Johns Hopkins Hospital. It was upon check-in that the receptionist had her sign the consent which read,
“I hereby give the consent to the staff at Johns Hopkins Hospital to perform any operative procedures and under any anesthetic either local or general that they may deem necessary in the proper surgical care and treatment of:______ (31).”
Ms Henrietta’s autopsy was performed at 10:30 am and that was the same day she died. Examination of the body revealed a "well-developed, thin, colored female [with] deeply pigmented skin over the lower abdomen such as seen after x-ray treatment." Her cranial cavity and neck organs were not examined because permission was not granted. Also,The cells from Henrietta's tumor were given to researcher George Gey, who "discovered that [Henrietta's] cells did something they'd never seen before: They could be kept alive and grow."(15) unlike the other cells that dies hours or days later.
The HeLa Cell 3

The conclusion of Henrietta's cells has changed the world incredibly. Mrs Henrietta was a very beautiful black woman with families, a husband, and children. If HeLa cells hadn't grown successfully, several million of people may not have lives today. This book reminded me how inform consent was taken unserious during the old days. The violation of privacy was something taken for granted mostly among the black folks. Nobody cares about how the black people feels or what they feels. After reading this book I now understand why in today’s generation, nobody wants his or her privacy to be violated. According to this book, the black people was not allowed in the same hospital where a white person is admitted. I must congratulate the Author of the Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks Rebacca Skloot for such a remarkable story. Personally this book has impacted me in a positive way and I highly recommend it to anyone . This book is a “must read” for everyone.

The HeLa Cell 4
What is the contribution of this research study to the field of psychology?
I believe this research contributed a lot in the field of psychology because according to the book, a scientist accidentally poured a chemical on a HeLa cell that spread out its tangled chromosomes. Later on, scientists used this technique to determine that humans have 46 chromosomes—23 pairs not 48. Which provided the basis for making several types of genetic diagnoses. I believe Without psychologist there won’t be scientific evidence and maybe Hela cell could have been wasted.
Are the indicated conclusions well substantiated?
Yes. I think the conclusions was well substantiated based on the evidence on the book. Also, the immortal life of Henrietta Lacks has sold over 1.25million as of August 2012 and was the best article recommended by many English professor including my English professor during my ESL 210.

Is the article well written?
In my own opinion, I don’t think the Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks was well written. Though the conclusion of Henrietta’s cell saves a lot of lives but I was expecting to read more about the “inform consent”. What happened to those white doctors that took Henrietta’s cell without her consent? Was the receptionist that gave Ms Henrietta the form to sign at the reception fired? Those answers wasn’t included and that made me to say the article was not well written.