Immortality of Henrietta Lacks: the Epic of “Gilgamesh” of the History of Medicine

The aim of this study is to bring forward the story of the discovery of the HeLa strain by tracing back its roots in the history of medicine, which were regarded as the starting point of molecular genomic medicine. We also would like to see how medicine is being evolved by this event which can be seen as a corner stone through the historical timeline and to bring the current ethical and legal debates. This study will focus on the background of the story of Henrietta Lacks, including what she had been through during the treatment process at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, starting from the moment she learned that she had cancer, how her true story revealed, the meaning of HeLa and how and which medical advances shaped by collecting cells of hers. Having based on the novel written by the journalist Rebecca Skloot, who have revealed the true story of Henrietta and her family, our study aims at drawing attention to the name of Henrietta Lacks hidden in the history for a long time, recognized as the mother of modern medicine and, was not aware of changing the face of the medicine at the time she was living