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Politics & The Nation
EZ SU
KLMNO
‘Unsung hero ofmodernmedicine’ hailed Cells secretly removed
fromdyingwoman in ’51 transformed science
BY DARRYL FEARS Fifteen years ago, David Lacks
of Baltimore County attended the first HeLaWomen’s Health Con- ference in Atlanta when hardly anyone knew that HeLa actually referred to hismother,Henrietta. When he returned for a second
time to the annual conference with 14 other familymembers on Friday, everyone knew. The story of how Henrietta Lacks’s cells, commonly called HeLa, trans- formed science became widely known after the release this year of the prize-winning book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.” Henrietta Lacks’s cells have
lived on since they were secretly removedfromherbodybeforeher death from cervical cancer in 1951. They were the first cancer cells to survive in culture, repli- cating millions of times over and ultimately playing a central role in the creation of the first polio vaccine and many other medical breakthroughs. The book’s author, Rebecca
Skloot, recently announced on Facebook that Oprah Winfrey planned to turn the story into a movie. For decades, the doctor who
removed the cells without Henri- ettaLacks’s knowledge or consent hid their origin. The doctor, George Guy, disguised the name of the donor for reasons that re- main unknown. “It was only 25 years after her
death . . . that itwas revealed that they came from her,” said Robert Patillo, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Morehouse School of Medicine who once workedwithGuy. At the conference at More-
house, Henrietta Lacks was hailedas “anunsunghero ofmod- ern medicine.” David Lacks, 63, his brothers and sisters and their children were recognized at the school for their mother’s contri- bution tomedicine. The family, which lived in
poverty without medical care for years after her death, drewpraise from scientists, doctors and oth- ers at the conference. “It’s a turnaround,” David
Lacks said in a telephone inter- viewFriday, describing the differ- ence between 15 years ago before the book was published and now. “Everybody’s comingforwardand helping us out on getting recogni- tion.” He said the family is hoping for
some acknowledgment from bio- medical companies that use the cells to engineer discoveries such as the HPV vaccine, earning mil- lions of dollars. As the cellsmade money, the family livedinpoverty. Patillo said he helped organize the conference because theworld
should knowthe cells “came from this African American woman who had five children and has savedmillions of lives.Wewant to correct that and go forward with the continued use of HeLa and newdiscoveries that bring life.” The cellswere removedasHen-
rietta Lacks, 31, lay dying in a segregated ward at Johns Hop- kins Hospital. Guy never told her survivors that the cells were re- moved,andhegave falsenames to journalists inquiring about the donor.
“Everybody’s coming forward and helping us out on getting recognition.” —David Lacks, Henrietta Lacks’s son
Today, doctors often ask pa-
tients for permission to collect and use any tissue samples. But consent forms generally are open- ended, and patients rarely receive compensation or acknowledg- ment, according to bioethicists. Henrietta Lacks’s cells became
so important because they didn’t die. Cells taken from other pa- tients didn’t survive in culture, but to the amazement of scien-
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2010
tists, HeLa cells grew by the mil- lions. The result was ground- breaking advances inmedicine. Laidendto end, the cellswould
circle Earth three times. They’ve been copied, sold and shipped thousands of times, and their combined weight is an estimated 50millionmetric tons. HeLa cellswere also the first to
have their genesmapped and the first to be launched into space to determine how human cells wouldreact.Theyinformedscien- tists about diseases such asDown syndrome, led to in vitro fertiliza- tion advances and helped numer- ous scientists win Nobel Prizes, according to the book. The effort to honor the Lacks
family has gone beyond More- house. A committee established inHenrietta Lacks’s name is seek- ing to turn the home where she grewup in ruralClover,Va., into a historic landmark, andMaryland has agreed to turn the Turner Station home where she lived in Baltimore County into a land- mark, Patillo said. A foundation started by Skloot
has raised enoughmoney to pres- ent scholarships to five children in the Lacks family. “It’s definitely interesting that
we, as the grandkids and the great-grandkids,arelearningalot about our grandmother,” said Kimberley Lacks, 42. “We did not knowthat our grandmother liked to dance and loved to cook and liked having the family over.”
fearsd@washpost.com
Obama: GOP’s agenda rehashes harmful ideas
Tenets of ‘Pledge’ are same that hurt economy, he says
BY FELICIA SONMEZ Two days afterRepublicans un-
veiled their “Pledge for America” governing agenda, President Obama took aimat the plan, call- ing it a rehash of the same ideas that contributed to the country’s economic downturn. “It is grounded in the same
worn-outphilosophy:cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires, cut the rules for Wall Street and the special interests and cut themid- dle class loose to fend for itself,” Obama said Saturday in hisweek- ly radio and Internet address. “That’s not a prescription for a better future. It’s an echo of a disastrous decade we can’t afford to relive.” Republicans contend that the
plan offers concrete ideas on is- sues such as reining in govern- ment spending and the federal deficit and replacing Obama’s na- tional health-care overhaul. Re- publican leaders also point out that the unveiling of the new pro- posal came after a months-long initiative called “America Speak- ing Out,” through which people contributed their ideas on a gov-
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erning agenda online. Obama took aim at that initia-
tive in his Saturday address. “It turns out that one of the
ideas that’s drawn themost inter- est on theirWeb site is ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas,” Obama said. “Fun- ny thing is, when we recently closed one of the most egregious loopholes for companies creating jobsoverseas,Republicans inCon- gress were almost unanimously opposed.” Obama also acknowledged on
Saturday the determination by economists last week that the re- cession officially ended in June 2009.Henotedthat thenews is “of little comfort or value” to themil- lions of Americans who are still struggling and that “we have to keep pushing” to repair the dam- age that has been done. In the weekly Republican ad-
dress, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who spearheaded the “Pledge for America,” argued that the plan presents “a new way for- ward that hasn’t been tried in Washington — an approach fo- cused on cutting spending,which is sadly a new idea for a Congress accustomed to always accelerat- ing it.” McCarthy contended that na-
tional Democrats, not Republi- cans, are the ones to blame for the country’s dire economic straits.
sonmezf@washpost.com
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