In 1951, doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took cell samples from a cancer patient without her knowledge or permission. This woman, Henrietta Lacks, has been a controversial topic ever since. For years, Dr. George Gey had been trying to make human cells divide and multiply continuously, and when the cell sample that had been taken from Mrs. Lacks began to do just that, he was understandably ecstatic. Having a limitless supply of living human cells allowed doctors to test how human cells reacted to new treatments for various diseases. Being able to test on human cells led to and continues to lead to countless breakthroughs in treating countless diseases, most notably the development of the polio vaccine, laying the groundwork for the first organ
