A woman whose cells founded a multi-million dollar industry and provided the world with treatments for diseases such as leukemia, hemophilia, influenza and countless others yet almost no one knows her name. Her true identity was in the shadows for years after her death in 1951. Little did her family know that she lived on through her cell line which is estimated to have a cumulative weight of around 50 million metric tons today. For years after her death no one knew anything more about her other than the name given to her cell line: HeLa. When Rebecca Skloot heard of HeLa cells and the woman behind them in her biology class, she was immediately intrigued and proceeded to research her, Henrietta Lacks. She couldn’t find much, if any, …show more content…
Rebecca Skloot is a long time author in the field of science. Skloot worked for Radiolab, a show that focuses on science and philosophy and on PBS’s Nova ScienceNOW. She also worked primarily in narrative science writing, before publishing her debut book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
Henrietta Lacks was a poor black woman from Virginia, living during the time of Jim Crow laws. When she had abdominal pain and felt a lump within her cervix she chose to visit John Hopkin’s hospital, one of the few facilities that provided healthcare to African Americans. Skloot’s chooses to describe Henrietta as a poor woman “born of slavery” to emphasise the point that race played a large role in Henrietta’s story (pg. 197). During this time, interracial marriage was barely made legal. For a colored person to contaminate a pure white person was illegal before this time, yet cells from a black woman contaminated the whole earth.
For several years, scientists had been trying without success to keep human cells alive outside of the body. One doctor in particular, was George Gey. He was determined to be the first man to grow malignant cells in order to find the cause and cure for cancer. “Gey took any cells he could get his hands on—he called himself “the world’s most famous vulture, feeding on human specimens almost constantly.”( pg. 30). Henrietta was an exception to the many cells that went through the Gey’s laboratory because within 24 hours the cells had doubled. As long as
She is very vivid in describing the events happening, especially with her medical terminology. In addition, she captures the horror in Henrietta Lack’s condition to truly describe the magnitude of the situation. However, Skloot is most successful when she is met with the surviving members of the Lacks family. “Henrietta’s family – particularly Deborah – and their lifelong struggle to make peace with the existence of these cells, and the science that made possible,” (Skloot, 2010, pg7) catches the readers emotions to help understand another side of the story. Developing a major ethics debate, Skloot’s implementation of pathos reveals the heavy gravity behind the
Rebecca Skloot, however, used a different perspective in her portrayal of Lacks. This is evident in the way in which she conducted her research and the way she wrote the book. Skloot’s book, The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, included both the “scientific element concerns the origin and the subsequent uses of the HeLa cell line of cultured cancer cells” (Harper, 2011, p. 463) and the social and
Henrietta Lacks is not a common household name, yet in the scientific and medical world it has become one of the most important and talked names of the century. Up until the time that this book was written, very few people knew of Henrietta Lacks and how her cells contributed to modern science, but Rebecca Skloot aimed to change this. Eventually Skloot was able to reach Henrietta’s remaining family and through them she was able to tell the story of not only the importance of the HeLa cells but also Henrietta’s life.
The non-fiction book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot, details the happenings and life of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman and tobacco farmer who became a medical miracle in the 1950’s. The book is written in an attempt to chronicle both the experiences and tribulations of Henrietta Lacks and her family, as well as the events that led to, and resulted from, research done on Henrietta Lacks’ cells. Henrietta was a very average African American woman in this period; she had only a seventh-grade level education, and followed traditional racial and gender roles by spending her time has a mother and caretaker, as well as working on farms throughout her life until the involvement of the US in World War II brought her and her husband, “Day” Lacks, comparatively better work opportunities in industrial steel mills. However, after her death in 1951 Henrietta became much more than average to doctors at John Hopkins when the discovered that cells extracted from her cancerous tissue continued to live and grow much longer than any other tissue samples. Further investigation and isolation of these thriving cells led to the creation of the first ever immortal human cell line in medical history. The incredible progress in medicine made possible by Henrietta Lack’s tissue cells were not without downfalls, though. The treatments and experiences received by Henrietta and the effects it had on her and her family demonstrate both racial and gender
After her death in 1951, for six decades, Henrietta Lacks did not exist in the eyes of the society, but her cells did. How? Well, the answer is quite simple. HeLa Cells are the first immortal human cells. These cells never die and multiply every twenty-four hours. After spending 10 years to perfect her first book, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot essentially captured the life, the death, and aftermath of Henrietta Lacks’ life. With controversial issues regarding science, ethics, race, and class Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey. From the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells, from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover,
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks This book report is based upon the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by author Rebecca Skloot. This book is published by Crown Publishers and copyrighted by Rebecca Skloot in 2010. Rebecca wrote this book to tell a story about the woman who was behind the HeLa cells she had learned about in a college class at the age of 16. She never knew that the information she would discover about Henrietta’s past and her family’s unfortunate experiences would changer her life forever.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot tells the story of how the world famous HeLa cell line was created and the medical, legal, and cultural issues surrounding it all. This book doesn’t just cover how scientists used these cells to create life saving vaccines and treatments, it shows us the woman behind these extraordinary cells and what she and her family have went through. The woman behind these ever prevalent cells is Henrietta Lacks. At the time she was a poor, African
Henrietta Lacks: an unknown name up until recent years. A name that had been known to the world only as HeLa; The first two letters of a name that belonged to a poor African American tobacco farmer that unknowingly changed science and life as we know it today. Her life has finally been portrayed in a very intimate story that not only does her life some justice but also transcendentally brings to mind the philosophical issues concerning medical ethics both of the past, present, and the future. In a world of constantly evolving medical advancement, science is a pivotal force that propels ideas forward. Although most will agree that the knowledge and cures found are a positive aspect, there is also a necessary evil that is involved, including
When I first heard about the book "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks", I thought it was just a reading assignment when I was in high school that I had to complete for a grade. As I began reading I became particularly interested in Henrietta 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.
Rebecca Skloot in her book uses scientific facts as well as dialogue of the family and others Skloot meets on her journey and with her family comes their views of how Henrietta was treated by the doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital. When Henrietta was diagnosed it was the era of the Jim Crow South. In a time that was predominantly racist, African Americans weren’t treated with the most consideration. No researcher found it necessary to compensate the Lackses for using their mother's cells. The Lackses still show their frustration about how they have yet to be compensated for researchers using their mother's cells. Reverend Pullum, Deborah’s second ex-husband, answered her phone saying if Skloot wishes to speak with Deborah “‘they want to be assured
The effect the discovery and creation of the HeLa cells made on the science community and Henrietta’s family had a domino effect. Both had different opinions and beliefs on the matter; this led to some difficult questions asked of the family and of the medical community. Due to the new and advanced methods of experimentation, the HeLa cells made to to the field of science, the scientific community and the media failed to remember that Henrietta and her family were not abstractions but actual people. Rebecca Skloot, however, took into account the Lack’s family, she inquired both the history of the HeLa cells as well as the Lacks family, treating them as actual people with inalienable rights.
The scientific development of the HeLa cells has made a huge impact in the medical field. HeLa cells are a cell line created from the doctors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. These cells are from a woman named Henrietta Lacks and are considered to be “immortal”. They are considered to be unique because they are not like any other normal human cell. This cell line is considered to be a triumph to many scientists and researchers, but it also had some negative impacts. Many controversies arose from the development of these cells such as how doctors at Johns Hopkins did not get consent from its patients, how the Lacks family received nothing even with the success of HeLa cells, and the racial segregation that has become one of the reasons for the creation
The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks is a book about a writer and science lover, Rebecca Skloot, who was intrigued by Henrietta’s story. She first heard of her in a biology lecture and since has been highly interested in learning about the Lacks family. After she went off to college to study biology she heard of “HeLa” and continued to research more about Henrietta. She found that some textbooks, articles had wrong information about her name and learned that Herniettas family didn’t even know about HeLa until decades after her death. She decided she wanted to tell her story and reached out to the Lacks family and eventually became good friends with Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah Lacks, who also believed that her mother wanted her to receive
The book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, was a nonfiction story about the life of Henrietta Lacks, who died of cervical cancer in 1951. Henrietta did not know that her doctor took a sample of her cancer cells a few months before she died. “Henrietta cells that called HeLa were the first immortal human cells ever grown in a laboratory” (Skloot 22). In fact, the cells from her cervix are the most important advances in medical research. Rebecca was interested to write this story because she was anxious with the story of HeLa cells. When she was in biology class, her professor named Donald Defler gave a lecture about cells. Defler tells the story about Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells. However, the professor ended his
“The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks” written by Rebecca Skloot exposes the truth about a colored woman, Henrietta Lacks, who died from cancer leaving five children and a husband behind. Before her death doctors took her cells,without her or her family consent, to do there own research and experiments. They discovered that her cells were immortal, they became the first immortal cells known as the HeLa cells..After the discoverment the Lacks family were never told that Henrietta Lacks cells were used, bought and sold. Through the HeLa cells the scientist had made money while Henrietta kids were mistreated and were in poor situations.It wasnt till 25 years later that the Lacks family found out about the HeLa cells doing miracles. Rebecca Skloot though “The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” was able to explain the unethical situations that the Lacks family faced after Henrietta’s death.