Henrietta Lacks Research Paper

Henrietta Lacks was a poor African American that became one of the most vital tools in developing medicines like polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and much more. She was a loving mother of five, wife, sister, and friend to many that was taken on October 4, 1951 at the age of thirty-one to cervical cancer. Henrietta’s cells were taken without her knowledge to develop the first ever immortal line of cells.

In the example with the HeLa cells, a great debate was raised when the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was published. The debate centered around the lack of information of where the cells came from, who should have known about the original harvesting, and the lack of compensation for Henrietta’s family once the cells started generating income. Also discussed was the tendency of the medical community to

Henrietta Lacks was born on August 1, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia. Henrietta’s mother passed away in 1924. She was sent to live with her grandfather. Henrietta shared a room with her first cousin David. They had their first son, Lawrence in 1935 when she was fourteen. Then they had their first daughter in 1939, Elsie, who was disabled. Henrietta and David then moved to Maryland and had three more children, David Jr., Deborah, and Joseph.

In this semester’s book club, I have enjoyed the book called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This book describes a true and famous cell line in the medical research field, that is the first immortal cell line in the world, HeLa cells. Not until I finished reading this fantastic book, I know that the HeLa cells were taken from a cervical cancer patient, Henrietta Lacks, without letting her know the truth about using her cells in research, even though she died. What more surprising to me was that her family lived a hard life without health insurance while the researchers make many profits from developing HeLa cells, they were never informed about their family member’s devotion to the scientific research.

What if you had the ability to save several lives through something only you had ? Wouldn’t you like to be told and given proper credit? Well unfortunately that is not case for Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta held a powerful and significant key which has helped as a cure for many things and is still being used till this day . I choose to write about Henrietta due to the fact that she is one of histories and science unsung hero’s.

As both Americans and people, our rights are limited and regulated by those in command. The enforcement of these regulations of just treatment is, unfortunately, more severe or less severe depending on race, gender, and wealth. Since the beginning of the United States, the oppression of people of color was present to the strongest extent. White, Europeans arrived in the Americas and looked at the people of color as beings brought to serve them. We forced them to work and when the Native people died out, the Europeans brought in African Americans as their new slaves in the 1700s. Since then, even though they fought to abolish slavery and for their rights, our country continues to treat them differently. This was the case of Henrietta Lacks,

Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman who was born on August 1, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia. She lived with her mother until the age of four and then she moved in with her uncle on a tobacco plantation after her death. While staying there she ended up sharing a room with her first cousin David “Day” Lacks, after sharing a room with him for many years, in 1935 Henrietta had their first child at the age of fourteen, they named him Lawrence, then, four years later they had their second child Elsie and then in 1941 they were married.

In the novel, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, scientists steal cancerous cells from a middle aged black woman named Henrietta Lacks without her consent. She soon passed away and her cells were then put in culture and, unlike any other cells previously, succeeded in growing and reproducing outside of the body. This new breakthrough led to a scientific revolution that changed the world as we know it. The cells, called HeLa, were mass produced in factories and distributed all around the world. They allowed scientists to conduct studies and experiments that were impossible before; consequently, numerous new discoveries and cures were made and polio was eradicated. However, Henrietta’s family had no idea what her cells did

Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Her doctor at Johns Hopkins hospital took her tissues without informing her and grew them. When she died her tissue became HeLa cells which became the key to science research creating vaccines and medications. Race In the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was exploited by the doctors. It was a major issue and the doctors took advantage of their patients to receive what they wanted. It left people like Henrietta and her family uninformed because blacks were forbidden to ask questions.

The central idea of chapters 20 "The HeLa bomb" and 22, "The Fame she so richly deserves" is the truth behind HeLa, or the coming out of Henrietta Lacks, the owner of the HeLa cells. The first time Henrietta was identified in print for her belongings was during the journal Jones and his colleagues published, which read "The biopsy... has secured for the patient, Henrietta Lacks as HeLa, an immortality which has now reached 20 years." (Chapter 22, Page 173) Sadly, although Henrietta's name was published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, Henrietta's name was not known to the common crowd until the War on Cancer. Where Russian scientists claimed to find the cancer virus in cells of Russian patients, however "...those cells weren't from

Bringing Henrietta to Life: Creating Dialogue on Disparities across Disciplines Henrietta Lacks was a woman who made an eye-opening breakthrough in medicine in the early 1950s. Her cells were the first immortal cells to be discovered which paved the way for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in-vitro fertilization, and more. Unfortunately, there are two sides to every story. Although, modern medicine would not be where it is today without Hela cells, Henrietta’s family continued to struggle with her legacy because of the health disparities associated with ethics, race, and medicine. Henrietta’s cells were taken without her knowledge and used to cure various medical conditions.

When I first began reading the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot, I expected it to only be about the science behind HeLa cells, which I didn’t find particularly exciting. Except, I was proven very wrong. I have not been able to put this book down, for Rebecca Skloot is a remarkable writer who entices the reader with the emotional story of Henrietta Lacks and her family. It is true that there were quite a few scientific studies included within this book, but they never dampened the adventure. If anything the studies were integrated in such a way that I feel they were needed in order to understand all of the perspectives. Reading all of the scientific advancements made using HeLa cells left me happy, but also led me to question how justifiable it was. These researchers took Henrietta’s cells and used them without her even being aware of their actions. I believe the original intent of the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was to humanize and give Henrietta and her family credit for the advancement in science that her cells, the HeLa cells, contributed; thus leading me to my conclusion that the advancement in science using HeLa cells is not justifiable because of the harm inflicted on both the family and society.

What if Henrietta’s story appeared in the mainstream in 1951, instead of 1976? Would it help her case? Or would anyone care because of the color of her skin? Everyone’s point of view of African Americans were very different in 1951 from in 1976. The public interpretation would be very different if publishing Henrietta’s story in 1951 because of the changes like Jim Crow Laws, segregation, and if Rebecca Skloot would even be allowed to interview the Lacks family as much as she did.

Within the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” the family goes through many hardships that can most definitely occur in our world today.One of these that have caught my attention is the children's lack of support and lack of education. Even Henrietta had a lack of support at her younger teen years. While at the 6th-grade level, she dropped out. Henrietta’s children had to go through some of their roughest times at a young age, so I believe this impacted them and affected how they are today. Since the children's father was busy working two jobs, Henrietta's son Lawrence took his mother's passing as a queue to step up and take care of his siblings. Lawrence dropped out of school and Spent his time trying his best to take care of them. Because of this, he was unable to receive a better level of education that would have been beneficial to himself and his family. As for the rest of her children, they had many issues at home that affected the way they learned. These children lived

My interpretation of his work is the lady is in distress and anxiety is slightly obvious. The reasons for my interpretation, is the use of the dark background while the blotches of red scattered on her face and shoulders. My first impression of this artwork by Francis Bacon, was the uniqueness of the curves and unusual distortions of the facial features. The artwork is from one of his series of portraits he painted of his close friends. This particular portrait painting is of Henrietta Moraes, who was a close friend and drinking companion of Francis' from the early 1960s. The ideas in this artwork is to capture the different aspects of her appearance and to reveal her as in the 'most elemental state'. Feelings such as the sense of chaos and