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Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks: An Analysis

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Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks: An Analysis
Part two of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks discusses the fate of Henrietta’s cells after she passes away. George Gey, the doctor that originally received Henrietta’s cells without her permission, asks her husband if he can perform an autopsy on Henrietta so that he can gain more knowledge on her cells. He wanted as many of her organs as possible to see if they would grow like the HeLa cells. Day refused at first because he planned on having a funeral, but Dr. Gey insisted that he perform the autopsy and promised to make her body suitable for a funeral. In 1951, when a polio epidemic started, Dr. Gey used Henrietta’s cells to tests the vaccines. The HeLa cells were also very effective when they were used to study diseases such as
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