Henrietta Lacks Convocation

Today I attended a convocation about our Readings in Common book "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." This convocation was required by IS class, and took place during the IS class time slot. The first speaker at this assembly was a Wartburg College alumnus (I couldn't remember her name, something like Dr. Bacchus), whom now has her Doctorate in gynecological oncology, and is employed at the Mayo Clinic is Rochester, Minnesota. She presented a PowerPoint on Henrietta Lacks and her cervical cancer, in which she often compared to a normal cell. She went into great depth on the experiences she has had with HeLa cells throughout her studies. After she was finished with her PowerPoint, we were introduced to a panel of Wartburg faculty, whom also have different insights on the HeLa cell controversy. The members of the panel were Dr. Keith McClung, Dr. Jennifer McBride, and I can not remember the last members name. Dr. McClung is a professor of Biology at Wartburg and has used HeLa cells many times in his research. Dr. McBride holds the chair of Ethics on the Wartburg College Board of Regents. The last member of the panel was the previous Ethics chair holder in the Wartburg College Board of Regents (I believe, she didn't talk loud enough). This convocation was quite interesting, and I learned many things about Henrietta Lacks, HeLa cells, and cancer in general.