Burkitt Lymphoma Book Report

Rebecca Skloot, the author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, vividly described a series of disturbing events that took place. Henrietta was a woman who helped changed the face of medicine. Her cancerous cells never died. Scientists and doctors experimented with them and created new treatments to various diseases. The disturbing events that occur after the death of Henrietta are crucial if her story is to be told correctly. Some of these events include sexual assault to one of Henrietta’s daughters, the beating of Joe, Henrietta’s son, as a child, and torture to people with illnesses like Elise, another one of Henrietta’s daughters.

Skloot’s initial interest in Henrietta was born out of sheer curiosity, but turned into a genuine want to help Deborah know her mother and understand what happened to her. Skloot’s genuine care for people can be insinuated in her description of the time she spent with Deborah, as she says, “Each time I visited, we’d walk the Baltimore Harbor, ride boats, read science books together, and talk about her mother’s cells” (Skloot 251). The book took a backseat to helping Deborah. She wasn’t concerned with publishing her book quickly and making money quickly; she truly wanted to help Deborah understand what happened to her mother. She handled Deborah’s erratic bouts of paranoia with grace, patiently and calmly waiting for her to come around

Deborah Lacks was born on November 5th 1949, and was Henrietta and Day’s fourth child. She didn’t remember much about her mother because she died when Deborah was four. Still without even knowing her mother, Deborah Lacks never appreciated the unfairness her family had to go through because of the doctors at John Hopkins Hospital. She more than any member of Henrietta’s family, was angered by the unfairness. Skloot interviewed Deborah for a whole year, but it took a long time to gain her trust. She told Skloot she did not want to get rich, but she wished she had health insurance to pay for the drugs she took that her mother’s cells probably helped make. Deborah died in her sleep in 2009; she was 60 years

Who was Henrietta Lacks? What if I told you, had she not lived, your life would be very different today? Her name was Henrietta, she was a poor, uneducated, African –American woman, but she is known today as HeLa, and primarily only in the scientific community. Henrietta existed on this earth a short 31 years, but her cells live on eternally. Cells that she never knew were taken from her, dare I say stolen, at the most vulnerable time of her life, during surgery for terminal cervical cancer. Five years ago I read Rebecca Skloot’s groundbreaking account The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and I was captivated by Henrietta’s story and the effect that this medical deception had on her family. Her story should be told.

Throughout her book, Rebecca Skloot shared the story of Henrietta Lacks and how her cells became so important to science. This narrative involves racism, injustice, and ambition. Henrietta, for instance, alike the majority of African-Americans, was a poor tobacco worker, who lived in a small town called Clover. Blacks did not have the same benefits as white people. One significant difference was medical care: hospitals separated colored and white people using different floors one for whites and one for blacks. Evidently, the white section had more advantages; instead, some blacks could not even afford seeing a doctor and when they did, “it was understood that black people did not question white people’s

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is a story about a young African American woman whose cancer cells were taken from her and grown. They became one of the most important tools in medicine. It’s also the story about how her family couldn’t afford health insurance. This book yields a horrifying look on America’s true values: economic status, religion, and discrimination. Poverty stricken people were the subject of discrimination in the United States.

She repeatedly states that her intentions of writing a book “about [Deborah’s] mother” are because she “was surprised no one seemed to know anything about her” (52). Skloot further proves her point of respecting the personalities of the Lacks family through her interviews for family history and her travels to Clover for relatives, as well as her information on the scientists and their feelings of using the HeLa cells through talks. However, Skloot’s research ultimately leads to her discovery that “‘science is not the highest value in society’” (321). This point is further emphasized with references to Christoph Lengauer, a “young Hopkins cancer researcher” who makes a FISH painting of Henrietta’s cells to show “‘how grateful [he is] for their donation” (234). Additional references are made to Roland Pattillo’s conferences and their mentioning of respect amidst all the negativity directed towards the Lacks family. Through Skloot’s research, Deborah and the rest of the Lacks family have been able to get answers to their complicated questions and Skloot is able to display her perspective

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot digs deep into the hidden details behind the life of an African American woman, Henrietta Lacks, who faced a long rode of unethical medical treatment after being diagnosed with cervical cancer at the age of 30. Before Skloot could uncover Henrietta’s past, she first had to gain the trust of the remaining family members and people who knew Henrietta due to them being poorly portrayed by workers in the medical field and the press multiple times. Skloot was not going to get the family to open up without them fully trusting her and her intentions. The book reflects on Henrietta’s childhood leading all the way up to her death. It also reflects on the unethical practices that were being held

20 years after Henrietta had died, her family finally learned about Henrietta’s cells, and when they did they weren’t happy. Most of Henrietta’s family were upset that no one had told them about Henrietta’s cells and that there were corporations worth billions of dollars, because of Henrietta’s cells, when her family couldn’t even afford a doctor. Deborah and Rebecca (the author) worked together to find out more of Henrietta’s story, and for Henrietta to get recognition for Henrietta’s cells. Henrietta eventually started to get recognition and Deborah got to see Henrietta’s cells at John Hopkins. Henrietta’s family eventually forgave John Hopkins. And in the end they were just happy their mom saved so many lives. Deborah’s health starts to fail and she dies at the end of the book with a smile on her

In the second section, Skloot tells the story of Henrietta’s death with quotes from multiple perspectives in order to establish her as a human, rather than just the origin of the HeLa cells. Chapters with historical context tell the story of cancer research when it first began to emerge, and begins to connect those events to Henrietta Lacks. In this section, the author’s research and interviews with the Lacks family are introduced much more often to start the transition from the topic of Henrietta’s life to the bigger picture, her importance to medical/scientific ethics. The final, and longest chapter concludes the book with the many legacies Henrietta left behind, not only for research, but also her family and humanitarian issues with ethics and

The doctors at Hopkins did not get Henrietta’s consent to take her cells. Her cells have been made and used for many things yet her family didn’t even know they existed. The dishonesty only got worse towards the end. A doctor named McKusick asked Susan Hsu to go take blood samples from the family to test them alongside Henrietta’s. Susan Hsu called Day and he thought they were doing it to test the children for cancer. They gave the blood samples without really knowing what for. The family had yet again been lied to about something concerning themselves now and Henrietta. Deborah was scared for the results because she thought she could have the cancer but, she didn’t and she lived her life. All throughout the story the family had problems with people but the one person they trusted besides each other was Miss Rebecca. She made an impact on them and it will stay with them

Skloot’s “Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” documents of the story of Henrietta Lacks. The novel shares the story of how scientists collected cells from Lacks and created a human cell line that has continued to multiple indefinitely. Moreover, the cells of Henrietta Lack has enables discoveries and further research which has contributed to the fields of cancer research and gene mapping. The novel addresses the scientific story and exposes of the unethical practice of medical testing on African Americans; furthermore, Skloot bring the world of science, politics, and social justice to one common accord. A poor African American field worker, Henrietta Lacks died from cancer in 1951.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is telling the story of an African American women, the woman’s cells became important and spread the word in history. Skloots also included in her book how did her family affected the story, it also stated that her cells is worth a millions of dollars, but they didn’t get anything out of it. Skloot includes a terrifying glance about America’s -prominence: segregation based on economic status and race.

Rebecca Skloot wrote this novel from two basic perspectives. One being from the side of Henrietta Lack's family (including mostly Deborah and Zakariyya) and the other consisting of all of the scientists, researchers, and philosophers. As Skloot becomes a character in the story, she isn't actually

The Story of Henrietta Lacks is one of racism, poverty, science, faith, family, and bioethics. The story follows Rebecca Skloot’s journey as she learns about Henrietta’s story. Eventually, when she comes into contact with Henrietta’s family, Rebecca seems to know more about Henrietta’s cells contribution to science than the Lacks family does. Henrietta’s family, mainly her daughter Deborah, tells Rebecca about how the entire family is traumatized by reporters and how they learned horrifying things about their mother that the science community never cared to tell them. To me, this is the issue that stands out the most in the entire story: bioethics. While reading, there seems to be a moment, or even several, in each chapter that make you pause and think: how could anyone think that is okay?