[rubicon]

later this month Oprah Winfrey is starring in an HBO movie concerning a woman named Henrietta Lacks who died of cervical cancer in 1951.
Her cancerous cells dubbed HeLa were extracted at John Hopkins to be used for medical research.

I was introduced to the existence of HeLa cells and the story behind it when reading Andrew Weil's, MD book "Healthy Aging" in 2005.

John Hopkin's decision to continue their research using Henrietta lack's cancer cells without permission and the issues of bio-medial research in general have been criticized.

I hope HBO treats this subject matter objectively to the benefit of the medical community and the public at large. We will see?

Personal Best Regards:

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by rubicon

later this month Oprah Winfrey is starring in an HBO movie concerning a woman named Henrietta Lacks who died of cervical cancer in 1951.
Her cancerous cells dubbed HeLa were extracted at John Hopkins to be used for medical research.

I was introduced to the existence of HeLa cells and the story behind it when reading Andrew Weil's, MD book "Healthy Aging" in 2005.

John Hopkin's decision to continue their research using Henrietta lack's cancer cells without permission and the issues of bio-medial research in general have been criticized.

I hope HBO treats this subject matter objectively to the benefit of the medical community and the public at large. We will see?

Personal Best Regards:

I do too. It is a very delicate area. New discoveries, new benefits, new quandaries as to medical ethics. I would have been glad my cells would benefit mankind but doing anything medically to anyone without their expressed understanding and permission is much like the terrible things done in the concentration camps.

[rubicon]

GG:

The bigger story here is the state of medical research, pressures placed on scientist to show results in order to obtain funding and that many of the samples used had been contaminated leading to false and misleading research. A 2011 Bayer study sowed that only 25% of their studies could be replicated.
So let's hope Hollywood doesn't do hollywood because this story is much to important