Henrietta Lacks born August 1, 1920, was an African-American female tobacco farmer who resided in Dundalk, Maryland. She was wife to her first cousin and mother of five children. At the age of 31, Lacks died from cervical cancer. Before she died, a doctor took a sample of her cervical cells. These cells, named HeLa cells, became the immortal cell line that provided a Polio vaccine, aided in cloning, among other scientific breakthroughs. "Henrietta's cells were the first immortal human cells ever grown in culture. They were essential to developing the polio vaccine" (Zielinski, 2010).

HeLa cells have become a benchmark in the study of cellular processes. However, here in lies the controversy. HeLa cells have benefitted many except for the family of the person the sample was derived from. Henrietta Lacks' children, for decades, lived in poverty, with one son homeless. Was it right for a doctor to, without...
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