The use of Henrietta Lacks' cells led to many scientific discoveries, such as curing polio, cloning, and the human genome project. Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951. These cells underwent a mutation that made them immortal, meaning they continue to divide from her death in 1951 to this day. However, his cells raise an ethical question, because before he died he did not give consent for scientists to use his cells, and after his death they did not tell his family that they were using them. This has been an ongoing controversy because the cells have been so beneficial to society, but result from shady procedures. The reason why Henrietta's cells, the HeLa cells, did not undergo apoptosis was that they were cancerous cells that replicated indefinitely and these cells were being modified to be even more resistant due to other illnesses that Mrs. Lacks had. There are still many unknowns about the cause of an immortal cell line, but scientists know that it is related to a mutation within the cell. In Henrietta's case, the cells that were taken from her came from a tumor she had. These cells were placed in vitro and began to divide endlessly and rapidly. The reason the cells divided so quickly was that Henrietta also had HPV and syphilis, which could have made the cells even stronger. The most frequently asked question is: why did his cells continue to divide after his death? This question still has some gray areas, but scientists have a very good understanding on this topic. When cells were kept in ideal conditions they continued to divide because, just like cancer cells, the cell's regulatory system does not work properly and apoptosis does not occur. In normal cells,...... in the center of the sheet... also d. Works Cited Anderson, Jessica Cumberbatch. “Family of Henrietta Lacks, feds reach settlement over use of DNA information.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, August 7, 2013. Web. May 14, 2014.Andrews, Paul D. “Five Reasons Why Henrietta Is Not the Most Important Woman in the History of Medicine.” Popular science. Bonnier and Web. May 14, 2014.Cartwell, Alan. "Immortal HeLa cells". Immortal HeLa cells. Rense, February 17, 2010. Web. May 15, 2014. Freeman, Shanna. "How HeLa cells work." How things work. HowStuffWorks.com, September 10, 2012. Web. May 15, 2014.Argento, Marc. "A new chapter in the immortal life of Henrietta Lacks." National geographic. National Geographic Society, August 16, 2013. Web. May 15, 2014. Skloot, Rebecca. "Rebecca Skloot journalist, teacher, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." Rebecca Skloot Frequently Asked Questions Comments. Being evil and the Web. May 15th 2014.