Science Class
April 15, 2014
Last summer, our teacher book club read the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It followed the life of an amazing woman, Henrietta Lacks. Even though she passed away a long time ago, her cells are still living all over the world. In fact, her cells are incredibly important to science. They are called HeLa cells, after her name. We aren't going to read that entire book; however, we are going to read a Science World Magazine article about her. You will be answering some close reading questions about the article. Then you will discuss the topics with each other.
In order to discuss with all of the kids on the team, let's do the discussion on the blog. Instead of me telling you what to write, I want you to decide what part of this article you would like to discuss with the rest of the kids on team 6a. Write your reaction with enough detail so that anyone who reads it knows your thoughts and will be able to reply to them. That means you can't just write enough details to remind YOU what you were thinking.
Henrietta Lacks Activity
I don't understand why they could take her cells, without asking, then make money off of things the learned with then, but Lacks's family got nothing. How come her and her family didn't get a portion of the money? That isn't fair at all. It was her cells that made that possible, why do they get all the money????
ReplyDeleteI think that's a fair question. Why wouldn't they get any of the money. Don't scientists get what they did? They stole a part of someones body. And then made it some seem like HeLo cells are some type of highway freak show attraction.
Deletethat is kind of what I thought
DeleteI think that is so true!! Their family should've gotten atleast 1/4 of the money..
DeleteExactly, their family should've gotten at least some of the money.
Deletethat is kindy what i thought
DeleteI think that they should of asked before they took the cell then if they think that the cell could have be usful then they should of taken it with out permission.I also think that they should of gave them some money not like a million dollors but lik $ 100 or something because it was her cell and they took it to cerea a poliosies.
ReplyDeletesorry had a few typos
DeleteI think it's cool that they took the HeLa cells and also took mouse cells and combined them together. Specially on how it is supposedly the first combination of hybrid cells from two different species, and then using the hybrid cells for a research.
ReplyDeleteI don't get how radiation can stop cells from reproducing. It says in the issue that it can damage the cells so that it can't divide anymore. I get that part but I don't get HOW radiation can damage just your cells so they can't reproduce again without damaging your whole body. I thought radiation can hurt your body.
ReplyDeleteI thought it could too, but sometimes you just have to beleive in what you hear. It's like hearing some little kid saying that a bird was in the house and you don't wanna beleive but you pretend to so that they are happy and when you go and check it out there really was a bird in the house. You just have to beleive.
DeleteI also am wondering that. How does it not hurt all of your body, and just stop the cancer cells. It is really confusing.
Deleteyeah i believe it(somewhat) but i just dont know how it can. *science......a world of mysteries.*
DeleteWhat i wanna discuss is why couldn't they just ask for her cells, i'm sure if the scientists gave the right reasoning she would've said yes. It's like stealing someones brain. It's rude and it's pointless. Another question i have is why did they have to take her cells? Why couldn't they use someone else's cells, i'm sure it would be just about the same. And is it possible that you can take someones cells when they are dead, or do the cells just die and like dissappear?
ReplyDeleteYes that's what I think.
DeleteLike they could of asked but if she said no and they thought it was importent and then they could have taken it.
DeleteRIGHT!!!!!!!!! She would've said yes if she knew it could discover hundreds of things!! But I guess they were just nervous of her saying no. If she said NO and they STILL took it, that would have been really bad! So they probably just didn't want her to say no..
DeleteStill what if they did ask she said no , couldn't they take it after she's dead so at least it would be kinda ok
DeleteWell I noticed the scientists and doctors didn't ask to take anything!!
ReplyDeleteWhich really makes me mad......
They didn't ask to take the cancer..That ended in good but still!
They also didn't ask to put her genome on the internet.
I also read on the timeline that in 1973 scientists took blood from the Lacks family for genetic analysis without the right permission too.
I just don't think it's right to take stuff without asking even if it does help the world!! It's just plain out rude.
Yeah like why would they take something they didn't ask for? It's like the comment i wrote on rachels blog. It's like stealing someones brain, it's rude and pointless.
DeleteI thought that was pretty rude too!!!It was for a good purpose though!!!
DeleteIt was very wrong... But just think.. What if she would have said no to them taking the cells? Then we wouldn't have things we have today.... But it was still super wrong that they didn't ask!!!
DeleteI don't understand why they didn't ask to publish the book because the family could get half of the money and also why did they didn't ask to do the tests either
ReplyDeletewell, maybe by the time the book got written, the family that was actually related to her was dead.
DeleteActually Lacey the family is still alive
DeleteI dont think her family should have gotten money. would you want your great aunt getting money for your cells?
DeleteWell also their privacy it just is rude it's not aboutthe money though
DeleteExactly, why do the scientists think that was ok? They were her cells. I know she didn't need them, but it wasn't very nice to make money off them and not give her any. I think the family should have got like a third of the money or something.
ReplyDeleteThe doctors that took Henrietta's tumor did not tell her ANYTHING about taking her body part.I think they could have at least told her that they were going to do something to her body.After all it's part of her.I think that it is rude that they didn't tell her.
ReplyDeleteI think that the scientists were okay taking a few of her cells. But I think her family should have got a little of the money. I like that her cells were a major contribution to science, but I really think that the scientists were being greedy by taking all the money for themselves and not even giving a little to Henrietta's family. Overall I think it was okay to take Henrietta's cells but I'm disappointed that they didn't share any with her family.
ReplyDeleteI dont think her family should have gotten money. would you want your great aunt getting money for your cells?
DeleteI think they were wrong for taking her cells. The cool thing about taking her cells is that they can discover medicines and different vaccines to help cure the cancer. The only thing that makes it wrong is not asking the family if they can publish the book and taking the cells without permission.
ReplyDeleteI dont think her family should have gotten money. would you want your great aunt getting money for your cells?
DeleteI don't think it was alright to take the tissue out of her because They never asked permission. But it helped tons of scientist learn more about human cells.They still should have asked first.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why they did not give Henrietta family money
ReplyDeleteIf you got your cells cut out of you would you want you great uncle to get money for it? Overall, It's no ones business about it.
DeleteOk so the family should have got some fraction of the money from the book they could at least got 1/4 of the money just saying the family should have got some money.
ReplyDeleteIf you got your cells cut out of you would you want your great aunt to get money for it?
DeleteYeah i didn't think it was right either. it is like stealing other people's ideas and publishing them & taking the credit.
ReplyDeletei thought it was rude that they took her cells without asking...but, they made good money off of it except for the guy who removed her tumor. so it was necessary i guess...
ReplyDeleteIt was very necessary. They figured out so much stuff by these little cells, it's insane!
DeleteEven though they did not ask for her cells, I think it was good that they took her cells because if she said no we would not know how to cure cancer.
ReplyDeletethat is kindy what i thought
Deleteyeah they probably learned more with the cells about cancer and how to cure it.
DeleteI think that they should have asked the family about publishing Henrietta’s genome.
ReplyDeleteso do I
DeleteI think that they should of asked before they took the cells out I know that they could learn cool things with it but I still think that they should of asked before using them. I also think that is crazy is that the seintes get all of the money and the family do not get no money and some of the seintests get rich of of the cells.
ReplyDeleteya i agree but what if they asked and she said no then what would of happened.
DeleteI totally agree with your answer. it's pretty mean to take something that aint yours.
DeleteI thought it was pretty wrong of them to take her cells without asking... But just think what if she would have said no to them using them... Then we wouldn't have things we have now... Like polio vaccine.. And not only did they not ask her but they didn't even give her family any money!! With all the money they made they could have gave them just a LITTLE bit of money..
ReplyDeleteI think think it was weird how they combined the HeLa cells with the rat cells. I for sure would not want my cells in a rat. But, then again i would not be able to feel it. It just grosses me out by thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteI think they should have taken the cell because they now how to treat polio and the cancer she got
ReplyDeleteI think they should have asked to take them in the first place. It's like stealing someones else's property then selling it to make money. They should have asked to do that first.
ReplyDeleteI am wondering why they could just take her cells without even asking, or telling her. Then of course they get rich off of it and don't even pay any to her family. On the other side though they made lots of discoveries and found lots of cure for stuff. But really you take her cells without permission, get rich, and then don't pay anything to the family. I kind of think that it is cool all of the discoveries they made...but still no.
ReplyDeleteOk so some people would think that they took her cells without her permission!!!! OH NO!!!! Like she wouldn't care even if they did ask her. Also her cells saved us from Polio.
ReplyDeleteI think it was rude of them to publish her genome. Because that can reveal their personal information, like diseases they might develop. It's not wright especially because they know about that.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's OK to take things without asking, but is a different case if we wouldn't have got Henrietta's cells they wouldn't have found the cure for polio, AIDS,and terbrerculosis and other discoveries, so I guess it was ok.
ReplyDeleteSo I dont under stand why the original scientest who got the cells did not get most of the money or the real family because they did most of the work and the scientest all across the world got all the money.
ReplyDeletereally i didn't get why there took her cells with out asking her cause she might of said yes but yet they have helped us so much so i guess it was ok for the Drs to take it
ReplyDeleteI think it was pretty sad her family didn't get a say in what was going to happen to the tumor. All in all though,we would not have these great inventions
ReplyDeleteThese were her cells that scientists were saving and experimenting on. Cells are a part of your body, and her family didn't know anything about it. They should have been contacted but were not. On the other hand, lots of lives were saved due to what was discovered by using these cells. Her family deserved to be recognized and receive credit for this.
ReplyDelete