OYOGIST has learned that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has remembered Henrietta Lacks, whose cancer cells were taken out without her consent, and
provided the basis for life-changing medical breakthroughs.
In 1951, Henrietta Lacks a mother of five was dying of cervical cancer, went to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for treatment.
The doctors were alleged to have removed a sample of cells from the tumor in her cervix.
They gave the sample to a Johns Hopkins University researchers who was trying to find cells that would survive indefinitely so researchers could experiment on them.
The cells aided in the development of drugs for HIV/AIDS, haemophilia, leukaemia, and Parkinson’s disease; breakthroughs in reproductive health, including in vitro fertilisation; research on chromosomal conditions, cancer, gene mapping, and precision medicine.
