...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...
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...1952 HeLa cells became the first living cells shipped through the postal mail. The Tuskegee Institution opened the first HeLa factory that same year. They were a nonprofit organization that supplied cells to laboratories and researchers. Later on the company Microbiology Associates began selling HeLa cells for profit. HeLa cells have been used to conduct thousands of researches and medical discoveries. It is estimated that there has been more than 60,000 studies published using HeLa cells. In 1952, HeLa cells were used to help develop a polio vaccine. These cells were also used to test a variety of other vaccines, which have since saved millions of lives. In 1965, HeLa cells became the first cells ever...
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...Lacks and the HeLa cells. In "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks", Rebecca Skloot talks about Henrietta Lacks and how her cells were taken without her permission, and how her family suffered afterwards. Skloot shows how medicine and science were seen back in the 1950's compared to now. Henrietta Lacks was a “mother of five who died of cervical cancer at only thirty-one years of age” (Gabbay). When she passed away the doctors at John Hopkins asked her husband, David Lacks, if they could do a biopsy on her. At first he said no, but he finally told them they could go ahead. The doctors never told him or his family that they were going to take her cells and keep them. Nor did they tell the family that Henrietta's cells were growing at an incredible rate and were being shipped and bought across the world. “The existence of a constantly reproducing, or immortal, line of cells would permit an abundance of research that had never before been possible” this is what caused the cells to be coveted by doctors and scientist all over the world (Gabbay). “I have always thought it was strange, if our mother cells done so much for medicine, how come her family can’t afford to see no doctors? Don’t make no sense” (Gabbay). This statement was made by Henrietta’s daughter Deborah. Many companies made a lot of money from Henrietta's cells, known as HeLa cells, while her own children couldn't afford their medical bills. Henrietta's family didn't know about the HeLa cells until scientists investigating...
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...world’s first immortal human cells? HeLa How did Henrietta Lacks die? Cervix cancer How have her cells helped advance science? helped research genes the cause cancer helped make drugs to treat herpes leukemia influenza hemophilia Parkinson’s disease they have been used to study lactose digestion STD’s apendicitis human longevity mosquito mating the bad effects of working ins the sewers Part I - Life Chapter 1 - The Exam When Henrietta first tells her cousins Margaret and Sadie about the tumor, how does she describe it? Henrietta describes the pains as very painful, awful knot. Why did David Lacks take Henrietta to the public wards at John Hopkins...
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...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...
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...Non-fiction Why did David Lacks take Henrietta to the public ward at John Hopkins instead of a closer hospital? He thought that Hopkins was the best hospital around. He knew that the hospital would respect his religious values. It was the only major hospital for miles that treated black patients. John Hopkins specialized in treating cancer patients. Who was Henrietta’s gynecologist? Howard Jones George Gey Richard Wesley TeLinde Mary Kubicek Who is Crazy Joe? Day’s brother who helped them sell tobacco. Tommy Lacks’ friend who worked on the plantation. Henrietta’s boyfriend that she cheered for during horse races. Day and Henrietta’s cousin who was in love with Henrietta. What was different about Henrietta’s second child, Elsie? She was born in a hospital. She had lighter skin than the rest of the Lacks children. She was born on the floor of the home-house. She had a mental deficiency that kept her brain from fully developing. How did Pearl Harbor change life in Turner Station? The demand for steel and workers skyrocketed so there were more jobs. Housing had become cheaper because people were too afraid to live in the city. Many men signed up to fight in the war, opening up many jobs for the black workers left behind. It didn’t change life in Turner Station. Everything stayed the same. How did TeLinde hope to prove his hypothesis about cervical cancer was correct? He wanted to grow normal cervical cells, carcinoma in situ cells, and invasive carcinoma cells to...
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...That was the bad part...cause I don’t know if they didn’t give us any information because they was making money out of it, or if they was just wanting to keep us in the dark about it.” (Skloot 168). Commentary: The Lacks family knew nothing of the HeLa cells, nor did they make any money off of the billion dollar innovations surrounding them. This was most likely due to Henrietta’s societal position earlier in her life, where Johns Hopkins felt no obligation to inform her of her cell sample because she was in the charitable public ward. The lack of information given to Henrietta, and her unwillingness to vocalize any of her concerns led to the exploitation and suffering of her family. Evidence: “It was like a nightmare. She’d read in the paper about the syphilis study at Tuskegee, which had just been stopped by the government after forty years, and now...Hopkins had part of Henrietta alive and scientists everywhere were doing research on her and the family had no idea.” (Skloot 180). Commentary: Skloot included this scene about Bobette's realization to highlight the parallels of Henrietta’s exploitation with that of the Jews during the Nazi reign, the women of the Mississippi Appendectomies, and other victims of societal...
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...of science that keeps everyone on the edge of their seat. There is one story, however, that did indeed change the world of science but took decades to surface. This intricate story is described in the award-winning book, “The Immortal of Henrietta Lacks”. Published just three years ago, Rebecca Skloot tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman, who became the source of the first line of immortal cells. Henrietta was born Loretta Pleasant in Roanoke, Virginia in 1920. Henrietta lived a typical life for a poor African American of that time - growing up on her family's tobacco farm until her mother’s death. By 1950, Henrietta had married her first cousin, David “Day” Lacks, birthed five children, and relocated to the Baltimore, Maryland area. In January of 1951, Henrietta went to the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital complaining of a “knot” in her lower abdomen. It was found that the knot feeling was due a dangerous and growing tumor in her cervix. After a formal diagnosis of cervical cancer, samples of Henrietta’s cervix were removed unbeknownst to her. The biopsy samples were given to Dr. George Gey, a tissue culture specialist. He was working on creating an immortal cell line to be used for human medical research. He discovered that Henrietta’s cells, later known as “HeLa” cells, were very unique because they grew exponentially faster than standard cell lines and never died. Henrietta Lacks died at the early age of thirty-one due to the her...
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...a sample of her cancerous cervical tissue was taken without her knowledge or consent and given to Dr. George Gey, the head of tissue research. Gey was conducting experiments in an attempt to create an immortal line of human cells that could be used in medical research. Those cells, he hoped, would allow scientists to unlock the mysteries of cancer, and eventually lead to a cure for the disease. Until this point, all of Gey’s attempts to grow a human cell line had ended in failure, but Henrietta’s cells were different; they never died.” (USF 2013-14 Common Reader, The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Pg1) The cells, called HeLa, became one of the most important tools in medical research, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and more. Less than a year after her initial diagnosis, Henrietta’s cancer was too much for her to bare, and the cancer took over her body. Because of her poverty she was buried in an unmarked grave on her family’s land. She was only thirty-one years old. Her family never knew, at that time that a portion small piece of Henrietta was still living, and that small piece would change the course of healthcare in American and the world, and the course of medical ethics. Although their mother’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, the Lacks family have received nothing from those cell lines, and cannot even afford health insurance today. This book traces the history of cell research and examines the ethical (racial inequality...
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...advancements in the medical world today was the discovery of HeLa cells. Prior to the discovery of HeLa cells scientists around the world had to use mortal cell lines. This meant that scientists were all performing experiments on different cell lines and therefore had limited ability to share results. HeLa cells were immortal. HeLa cells are cells that grow and multiply while being invincible to bacteria, medications, and other external factors. These were the first cells taken from a human (without consent), grown in a laboratory, and showed signs of immortality. Although they were a great discovery, they also brought a lot of controversy into the world about whether or not the doctors should have taken her cells without...
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...order to gain insight into common health care strategies and to study disparate medical conditions; yet, a large amount of controversy exists regarding patient compensation. The most famous case regarding this controversy concerns Henrietta Lacks, a patient whose cancerous cells, taken without consent, became a worldwide tool for scientific research, and led way for Biotech companies to earn billions while Henrietta and her family received nothing. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the author Rebecca Skloot investigates Henrietta’s case, and includes asides of other research patients’ experiences regarding compensation. With consent now as convention, a relevant question arises in Skloot’s text: Should the research enterprise compensate patients who donate tissues for research, both in and outside of the course of medical care? This question demands reverent reflection, as the response will likely set a precedent for years to come. In order to examine whether patients in the course of medical care should receive compensation for tissue donations to research, we can turn to Skloot’s aside on John Moore. While undergoing treatment for spleen cancer, Moore’s physician found that his patient’s spleen cells were splendidly unique. In Skloot’s text, Moore states that his physician "offered to pay for the plane tickets...
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