Monthly newspaper and online publication targeting 18 to 35 year olds. The ultimate guide to the hottest parties, going out and having fun. Music, fashion, film, travel, festivals, technology, comedy, and parties! London, Barcelona, Miami and Ibiza.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/857119
On October 1951 a poor young black mother of 5 died of cervical cancer at Baltimore John Hopkins Hospital. Aged just 31, it seemed as if there was nothing particularly special about Henrietta's life. Yet in death, "Henrietta was transformed." Cells were taken from her body without her family's consent, by Dr George Gey, a researcher at the hospital. Henrietta's cells were something special, by mixing them with a special kind of plasma, her tumour cells were able to grow. This was the first time a human cell line had ever survived outside of a body, now known as the "immortal cell line." Nowadays it is dubbed as the HeLa cells by scientists, the book The Immortal Life Of Henrietta by Rebecca Skloot touches on the revolutionary impact these specific line of cells have had on medicine. Henrietta's cells were vital in developing the polio vaccine, they went up in the first space mission to see what would happen to cells in gravity; and several scientific landmarks have also used her cells. From cloning, gene mapping, to vitro fertilization. Seeing the importance of the HeLa cells it is no surprise that they have helped launch a multi-billion dollar industry. Thousands of careers have been launched through the exploitation of Henrietta's cells. Despite the overwhelming significance of Henrietta's cells, it took more than 20 years for her children (now living in poverty) to learn that their mother's cells were still alive and being used to "create an entire branch of medical science." One of Lack's sons points out the unfairness of the situation, "If our mother is so important to science, why can't we get health insurance?" The treatment of Henrietta and her children exposes a dark side to medicine in the US, were African Americans were used in sinister experiments. One of these experiments is the 'Tuskegee Syphilis' study between 1932 -1972, were 400 black men were left untreated with syphilis to see what would happen. Subsequently many died a slow and painful death. As the rightful recognition is given to Henrietta through films like The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, the contribution Lacks and several other African Americans made to modern medicine, & to countless lives all over the world, will forever be priceless. GUESTLIST 2017 / ISSUE 101 13 GUESTLIST THE BLACK WOMAN WHO MIGHT HAVE SAVED YOUR LIFE You've probably heard of the man who discovered the polio vaccine, Jonas Salk, and the first man on the moon Neil Armstrong, yet I could wager a bet that you have never heard of Henrietta Lacks and her life changing contribution to science.