...The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of Henrietta, an African-American woman whose cells were used to create the first immortal human cell line. Told through the eyes of her daughter, Deborah Lacks, aided by journalist Rebecca Skloot. Deborah wanted to learn about her mother, and to understand how the unauthorized harvesting of Lacks cancerous cells in 1951 led to unprecedented medical breakthroughs, changing countless lives and the face of medicine forever. It is a story of medical arrogance and triumph, race, poverty and deep friendship between the unlikeliest people. There had been many books published about Henrietta’s cells, but nothing about Henrietta’s personality, experiences, feeling, life style etc. This caught Rebecca’s...
Words: 1020 - Pages: 5
...Henrietta and the Lacks family Henrietta Lacks an Afro-American woman born August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia and later migrated to Dundalk (formerly Turner Station), Maryland. Henrietta married to her cousin David “Day” Lacks, they had five children; Lawrence, Elsie, David, Joseph (aka Zakariyyan Bari Abdul Rahman), and Deborah. In February 1951, Henrietta listened to Howard Jones, a gynecologist at John Hopkin Hospital, diagnosed her with Epidermoid Carcinoma of the Cervix Stage 1. Then eight months later, Henrietta enters into her final rest on October 4, 1951. What made her demise different from other related death, is that her cancerous cells changed medical history. Henrietta cancer cells killed her, it metastasized throughout her...
Words: 1571 - Pages: 7
...The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Henrietta Lacks was born into a poor African American family of tobacco farmers in Roanoke, Virginia in 1920. She was sent to live with relatives in Clover, Virginia after the death of her mother. She later married her first cousin, Day, in 1941. After the Great Depression and World War 1 the couple moved to Bethlehem, Maryland where there was a job opportunity for Day at the steel mill. Here they bought a home in Turner Station. Henrietta and Day had five children: Lawrence, Elsie, David (Sonny), Deborah, and Joseph. While Henrietta was pregnant with her fifth child in 1951 she noticed a lump in her abdomen. She was referred to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Here she was diagnosed with...
Words: 1865 - Pages: 8
...The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, involves a great amount of various topics, from race, to gender, to cancer. A woman named Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman battling cervical cancer in the 1940’s until her death in 1951. As doctors tried to help her and find a cure for her, they had to study her cells and the cancerous cells. It was during the study of her cells that they realized her cells never died; in fact, her cells reproduced indefinitely. There are many ways to support the thesis of the book, exploring the ethics in medical research, and this book is relatable and significant to U.S. history involving medicine, race, gender, etc. The book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, was written because the...
Words: 800 - Pages: 4
...Thesis: In her novel, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Skloot uses events from the lives of the Lacks family and examples of medical treatment from the time, to construct and defend the argument that minorities and members of lower socioeconomic statuses receive worse medical treatment than upper and middle class non-minorities and are subjected to exploitation. Topic Sentence 01: Many medical professionals at the time, had negative attitudes towards non white, uneducated or impoverished peoples. Evidence: “But Carrel wasn’t interested in immortality for the masses. He was a eugenicist: organ transplantation and life extension were ways to preserve what he saw as the superior white race…”(Skloot 59). Commentary: Carrel, a nobel prize...
Words: 1015 - Pages: 5
...assey Barbeau 11/10/16 Mr. Mooney The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Essay Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Broadway Books, 2010 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is Rebecca Skloot’s debut monograph, and she has only written one other monograph since. Skloot attended Colorado State University, and received her MFA from University of Pittsburgh. Though she has only written two monographs, Skloot is the author of hundreds of essays and stories published in various magazines. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot, tells the story of a young African American woman named Henrietta Lacks, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Though she was put through many painful medical treatments, Henrietta Lacks succumbed to her illness at the young age of 31. Unbeknown to Henrietta and her family, surgeons at John Hopkins Hospital had taken tissue from Lacks’ tumor, and sent the cells to be investigated by Dr. Gey, a researcher at John Hopkins Hospital. Despite the fact that many would consider this morally corrupt, informed consent had not yet materialized at this time, so there was no legal wrongdoing on the part of John Hopkins. Much to Dr. Gey’s surprise, Henrietta Lacks’ cells were growing astonishingly...
Words: 1758 - Pages: 8
...Prisoners of Henrietta Lacks, and the Value of Their Fate Inquiry Question: How does Rebecca Skloot’s depiction of prisoner experiments and research change the way we think about how early medical developments were first brought to life, and who really took the risks we should credit for them? Hypothesis/Working Thesis: Considering the reduced liabilities, rights, and public outreach of prisoners in the past, using prisoners as test rats was viewed as highly unethical and forceful by many. Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Crown Publishers, 2010. Print. In the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot not only argues her point, but also does a great job at informing and teaching her readers the vast risks prisoners were susceptible to while being used by doctors as human guinea pigs. Skloot makes many references to different potentially deadly diseases that were injected into prisoners for further research. The public’s opinion on this happening was shocking; many thinking it was highly unethical and forceful of the doctors. Skloot makes claims about how prisoners were viewed as vulnerable inmates who were unable to give informed consent. Regardless of how the treatment was viewed, prisons and doctors did what they wanted to do in those days ranging from diseases, to chemical warfare agents, to deterring how X-raying testicles affected sperm count (Skloot 129). Throughout her study of how HeLa cells have expanded, and where they...
Words: 729 - Pages: 3
...particular, and medical advances in general? Does the Lacks family have any claim to the money that has been made from HeLa? Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one. ~Chinese Proverb I find the question of who should reek the benefits of the HeLa cells in the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks to be not just be a simple he or she answer (if that makes any sense), but I find this question really asks something deeper. The questions I believe this is asking us is if it was legal for dr. George Otto Gey to do what he did and if so was it morally and ethically correct to for him to do so. As for the claim question, two questions really have to be answered, and they are: I.) Do the Lacks legally have any claim to the money that was profited from the HeLa cells? II.) Do the Lacks morally (without legal matters being taken into consideration) have a claim to the money that was profited from the HeLa cells? Legally Right or Wrong Now to elaborate on the legal aspects of this question; was it legally acceptable for the HeLa cells to be taken without Henrietta’s permission/knowledge and used for research and profit? From an excerpt from the Columbia Science and Law Technology Review it gives a similar case that was argued in the Supreme Court (circa 1980’s). In the following excerpt it will show the more than likely ruling to a HeLa case (had one taken place). Given the current state of the law, the Henrietta Lackses of the world have a hard argument to make...
Words: 354 - Pages: 2
...her cells to other researchers around the world without her family’s consent. Moreover, the Lackes themselves were used in medical research without informed consent, and Henrietta’s medical records were release to journalists without her family knowing. These are issues because the cells of Henrietta lack were used to create “immortal” cells that provided a steady supply of cells for medical research and allowed to find cure for multiple diseases, and guaranteed the medical industry millions of dollar when her family his struggling to pay for healthcare. Moreover, researchers at Johns Hopkins asked the Lack’s family to give blood sample to test for cancer when in fact, the sample were used solely to identify their mother’s cell. The researchers never contacted back the Lack’s family, and some of them still wonder if they have the same cancer that killed their mother. These issues in this case concern the broad category of consumer confidence issues where employers and employees have responsibilities to their customers or clients. Johns Hopkins, a healthcare provider institution, and its doctors and researchers who are the care giver had responsibilities to their patient Henrietta and her family. In addition, the case is concerned with the specific are of fiduciary responsibilities, and client confidentiality and privacy. The researchers at Johns Hopkins had the fiduciary responsibility to respect Henrietta’s basic human rights by seeking her consent before using her cells...
Words: 1601 - Pages: 7
...2nd Quarter Extra Credit – Honors Biology The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks This assignment is due on or before the 1st Semester Final Exam. There will be NO EXCEPTIONS to this deadline. You may turn it in at any point before the exam. You have 2 options with this reading….. #1 you can answer all of the questions related to the chapters below, or #2 you can develop your own project to show your understanding of the books concepts. You do this all the time in English class, now you can create your own project to present the many issues in the story of Hela cells. There are several questions to be answered below. Make sure you develop answers to each of the questions using complete sentences. DO NOT simply say “Ch 1 Q 1 No” I should not have to refer back to the question each time you answer a question to see what the question was…. incorporate the question into the answer and elaborate upon your answer when necessary. Prologue: The Woman in the Photograph 1. The author uses several similes to describe cells. What simile does she use to describe the way a cell looks? What simile does she use to explain the functions of the different parts of a cell? What do these similes suggest about biology? 2. What is mitosis? What beneficial biological processes involve mitosis? 3. What simile does Donald Defler use to describe mitosis? 4. What happens when there is a mistake during the process of mitosis? 5. According to Defler, how important was the...
Words: 2703 - Pages: 11
...the Biomaterials track of Biomedical Engineering at the TU Delft fit perfectly for this purpose. As may have been made clear by my background, my interests vary and range from technical, medical and even business fields. My Bachelor for example, also reflects this versatility of interests. Physics doesn’t focus itself on a single subject. My undergraduate studies gave me a very solid basis in Mathematics, Mechanics, Electronics, and even, because of my major in Nanophysics, some Chemistry. This is something I notice clearly when discussing subjects with peers, where I can easily chime in and give my two cents on most technical subjects. However, even though I can contribute everywhere, I often lack more in depth knowledge. Furthermore, due to the theoretical focus of my Bachelors, I lack skills many engineers do have such as modeling and programming or design skills. With the risk of oversimplifying this: I often understand the building blocks, what is needed for them, and how they are made. On the other hand, I am not very good at using them to build something. Luckily, the Bio tissues and Biomechanics track allows for a lot of freedom regarding the technical field, giving me the opportunity to work away my weaknesses by picking (additional) courses that focus on modeling and design. Going back to my wide range of interests, this is also something that reflects in my future plans. Firstly, I would like to express my entrepreneurial spirit by founding a company that allows for...
Words: 835 - Pages: 4
...book. Weisel says “We must not see any person as an abstraction”. This means that we can not just think of someone as a idea but we have to recognize that they actually lived and had a life. Henrietta is often interpreted as an abstraction and not a real person. Very many people get so caught up in the story that they forget that Henrietta was a real life living and breathing person. Once you understand that, you can really appreciate what her family has gone through and what she had to go through in her lifetime. Elies’ quote also relates to people of Henrietta’s time. When her cells were being passed around to different doctors without anyones consent, they didn’t think of her...
Words: 569 - Pages: 3
...Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This is due to the fact that when Henrietta died in 1951, the United States was still racially segregated. The African-American Civil Rights Movement would not begin until four years later, but would end somewhere in the neighborhood of eight years prior to Henrietta’s story making its debut in the mainstream media. Light had been shed on the issue of racism by 1976, making it a known issue to a vast majority of people. There really is no way of knowing how Henrietta’s story would have been interpreted had it been published at the time of her death in 1951. All one can do is speculate. For example, one speculation could be, if Henrietta’s story had been published at the time of her death, it most likely would not have been interpreted as racist. This is because of the fact that the people living in the United States at that...
Words: 475 - Pages: 2
...The solution to Henrietta Lacks The Ethics and Legal Solution Natalie Smith May 26, 2018 Medical Terminology, Law and Ethics 2 After reading the book of “The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks” a few years ago I was very amazed on how doctors back in those days just took bodily fluids and did experiments on patients without their permission. Since Henrietta was poor and doctors didn’t think it mattered if they took her cells it wouldn’t be any issues. Once they found out that her cells were able to be replicated infinitely in a lab they hit the gold mine of medical discoveries because they were able to find a vaccine for polio and breakthroughs in herpes, leukemia and even hemophilia and also were able to better understand numerous diseases that will help...
Words: 511 - Pages: 3
...to produce. Vitamin D is the product of cholesterol when struck with ultraviolet radiation from the sun’s rays. 12) Why do many people of Asian descent get the “Asian flush” when they drink alcohol? The main reason why many Asians get the alcoholic flush while other races do not is because European and African ancestors were frequently exposed to alcohol while Asian ancestors were not. As a solution to microbes and sanitation, European and Africans would disinfect with alcohol and some of the alcohol would infiltrate fresh waterways. Tolerance towards alcohol was favored and the abundance for this gene, ALDH2*2, increased. However, in many Asian cities, microbes and sanitation was dealt with by boiling water and creating tea. Most Asians lack the alcohol resistance gene. This gene produces necessary enzymes to break down alcohol but without the gene, alcohol does not get broken down properly. The “drunken effect” amplifies and appears after small amounts. 13) Why are African Americans prone to high blood pressure? African Americans are prone to high blood pressure while native born Africans are not prone to high blood pressure. This more probably explanation for this is the selective pressure for salt retention in African Americans. During the slave trade, slaves were treated with extremely harsh conditions. One of the common reasons why slaves died along this journey was dehydration. Those slaves that survived were better at retaining salts and salt help keep water in the body...
Words: 2265 - Pages: 10
