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Strange question, but at some point, could the self-sustaining cancer cells taken from Henrietta Lacks be considered a separate species?
by fiblye 7y ago
Strange question, but at some point, could the self-sustaining cancer cells taken from Henrietta Lacks be considered a separate species?
- selimthegrim 7y agoI think they need a special environment?
- pygy_ 7y agoSo does every living thing on earth... HeLa cells are remarkably adapted to growing in biology labs, not sure how they'd fare outside... Edit: it's been proposed as Helacyton gartleri, but not widely accepted because "Van Valen's argument of HeLa being a new species does not fulfill the criteria for an independent unicellular asexually reproducing species because of the notorious instability of HeLa's karyotype and their lack of a strict ancestral-descendant lineage." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa#New_species_proposal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa#New_species_proposal
- fiblye 7y agoTechnically, all life does. According to Wikipedia, the cells have a tendency to contaminate pretty much any suitable environment around and proliferate easily. Seems almost more like a fungal or bacterial growth than what we’d typically consider cancer.
- lawlessone 7y agoDoes it still contain all the information that makes Henrietta Henrietta? like face structure, hair colour etc?
- Santosh83 7y agoProbably, but may have significantly mutated all over the place, corrupting that information. Additionally there are more stable chromosomes than in a normal human. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa#Chromosome_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa#Chromosome_number
- gwbas1c 7y agoFrom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks > Henrietta Lacks (born Loretta Pleasant; August 1, 1920 – October 4, 1951)[2] was an African-American woman[3] whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized human cell line[4] and one of the most important cell lines in medical research. An immortalized cell line reproduces indefinitely under specific conditions, and the HeLa cell line continues to be a source of invaluable medical data to the present day.[5]
- UI_at_80x24 7y agoIt's important to remember this regarding Henrietta; Neither her nor her family were ever compensated for the 'use' of her biological material nor was consent ever given for a donation. The medical-research community has profited incalculably from this. She would have been treated better if she had recorded a song.
- mrfusion 7y agoThe needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
- UI_at_80x24 7y agoIf the companies didn't profit from it, I'd fully agree with your statement.
- theonlyklas 7y agoWhat is wrong with taking profit from their work? All she had a resource she wouldn't have been able to create value from no matter how much time she had in life.
- close04 7y agoThere are so many things wrong with the conclusion that whoever can make more value from something is entitled to take it, especially when we're talking about a human being. I'll tone down the analogy so we don't go into abject examples that would still perfectly fit your point. You probably don't create that much value from your house, land, car, etc. But companies still aren't entitled to take them from you simply because they can make more money from them. If you are not willing to give them up for free you're contradicting your own point. There's the mistaken impression that this is a 0 sum game and for companies to win, Henrietta Lacks and her family have to lose, it's expected of them. Or that the profits have to be exclusively on the company's side.