Ch. 13: The HeLa Factory (Feb 1)

(This prompt is courtesy of Henry)

HeLa cells massively helped in the creation of the Polio Vaccine. Jonas Salk, who engineered the vaccine, didn’t opt to patent the life-saving breakthrough. This allowed generic versions to be developed and be more widely distributed to almost all of the afflicted. When it comes to life saving medicine, where should the line be drawn on what people should be able to patent? Should patients be able to patent their tissues? Should scientists be able to patent cures?

Pages 49 - 76 (January 29)

1. How is what happened to Henrietta at John Hopkins relate to what happened to subjects of the Tuskegee syphilis study?
2. What were some of the aspects of Carrel's chicken heart cells that made them infamous?

Pages 35 - 48 (January 23)

1. Give an overview of what was so special about Henrietta's cervical cells when Mary began to culture them.
2. How do you feel about the fact that Henrietta was not told that her cancer treatments would leave her infertile?

Week 1: Beginning through p. 33

1. What is your reaction to Henrietta's experience with John Hopkins Hospital in the first chapters of the book?   How do her experiences compare with your own interactions with doctors and hospitals? How much of the difference between her experiences and those most of us are accustomed to are due to advances in medicine, and how much to can we attribute to her race and socioeconomic background? Do you think there is a dramatic difference today in the type of medical care that poor and/or marginalized members of our society receive and those who are relatively wealthy? For instance, do you think a poor, African-American woman diagnosed with cervical cancer today has the same prognosis as a wealthy white woman? Please use any personal experiences, observations, or antecdotes to explain your thoughts.

2. Pages 28-30 describe Dr. TeLinde's research goals, and his belief that since medical care was offered for free to poor people there was no dilemma in using their bodies as a source of cells and tissues for his own medical research. What is your first impression of the ethics of TeLinde's point of view? If you have taken Bioethics, or have some background in ethical rationales, please apply what you've learned in the past to this situation. There is no right or wrong answer to this question, so feel free to answer honestly.