Henrietta Lacks Research Paper

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.

Henrietta struggled with pain, bumps on her cervix, and abnormal bleeding. Henrietta was admitted into Johns Hopkins Hospital and was diagnosed with cancer in her cervix. Failing to mention her illness to her family, Henrietta began treatment at the hospital and her doctor was more than happy to help her due to his ulterior motive which was to use her

Also, I love that Henrietta changed the medical field forever. I like how Skloot tried to make me feel like I was experiencing this with Henrietta Lacks and her family. What I did not like was how Henrietta Lacks was treated by the doctors because she was a poor black tobacco farmer. However, I do not like the vocabulary that is used in this book. Also, it was wrong that Henrietta Lacks married her first cousin. Plus, Lacks had many cousins’ therefore, it is hard to keep track of all of the names and relationships. If my family experienced this, I would be furious that the doctors did not tell me or my family what was being done. Eventually I think my family would be tolerant because my cells would be helping people around the world. I think that is how Henrietta’s family felt after a couple of years after they found out about “HeLa” cells. The main person who stood out so far is Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah because she got so upset about the doctors taking her mom’s cells that she had to take medicine to calm down. I hate that Lacks had to live in a time when white people and black people were segregated. White people had nice fancy bathrooms while black had nasty bathrooms. I thought that it was a little weird that people rubbed the Jesus statue’s toe before they saw the doctor but why his toe

Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman who lost her life to cervical cancer. Henrietta was born on August 1, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia (Skloot 18). Henrietta’s mother passed away, and Henrietta’s father could not raise ten children by himself. Her father took all ten children back to his hometown of Clover, Virginia where the children were divided between family members, and Henrietta ended up being raised by her grandfather who raised Henrietta and several of her cousins (Skloot 18). Henrietta grew up taking care of the family tobacco field, and she only went to school until the 6th grade. At 14, She had her first child with her cousin, David “Day” Lacks, and in 1939, Henrietta and Day had a daughter named Elsie who was developmentally

Tiara Boston Mrs. Prairie Hlth 4270 5 Nov. 2015 Henrietta Lacks: Part 3 ​In 1973 Bobbette Lacks found out from her friend's brother in law that Henrietta's cells were still alive. He worked at the National Cancer Institute. Bobbette was upset when she found out. She then went and told Lawrence, who called Hopkins to see if he could get answers but they didn't have any records for her on file. Later, researchers got together to find out how to stop the HeLa contamination problem, but they needed DNA samples from her immediate family.

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.

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.

The 1950s are very different times in America, especially for blacks that are seeking medical care from hospitals or clinics, where racial discrimination is still quite widespread. The struggles that blacks face at this time period are only made worse by the poor treatment from the doctors and the sheer disregard for black patients, in comparison to white patients, “But several studies have shown that black patients were treated and hospitalized at later stages in their illnesses than white patients. And once hospitalized, they got fewer pain medications and higher mortality rates” (Skloot, 64). Henrietta’s life is greatly affected by the racism in

What if someone used your body or parts of your body for science without your permission. Patients rights is the right to keep anything medically safe and locked away from the public. The only people that would see it would be your doctor or anyone you grant to give that information to. People nowadays have that privilege to keep it iblprivate but back in the mid to the nineteenth century people didn’t exactly have that right to keep their information private. There was research conducted with people’s DNA that that person did not know about. Some tried to sue and get money from the doctors or scientists that worked on their tissues and made money off of them. But most people back then did not know that doctors had taken samples when they would be getting an operation done or to go and just get their blood

As further described by Skloot’s book, Henrietta Lacks was a beautiful woman with “walnut eyes, straight white teeth and full lips” also a wife, mother, and friend to everyone around her (Skloot 68). A few months after her last baby was born she saw abnormal bleeding in which she went to see a doctor. Her doctor found a lump inside her cervix, then he suggested to attend Johns Hopkins Hospital, since

In my opinion, one of the most interesting concepts in the book is discussed more in the afterword than the actual narrative. The issue is brought up with the question, “Wasn’t it illegal for doctors to take Henrietta’s cells without her knowledge? Don’t doctors have to tell you when they use your cells in research?” (p361). This is an incredibly important question not only because it seems so unfair to Henrietta and her family that they used the cells without any permission, but also because anyone could end up in a similar situation to the Lack’s family. The answer to that question is no, what they did was not illegal in 1951 and it was not illegal in 2009 when this book was published. This concept really stood out to me because it brought up the concept of ownership. Do we own our bodies? Do we own our

Due to previous experiences with reporters and white people in general, the children of Henrietta became skeptical of anybody inquiring about their mother and her cells (Skloot, 2010, p. 49). Therefore, when Ms. Skloot enters the lives of the Lacks family; it was a challenge. Before she could even talk to the family, Ms. Skloot had to obtain the trust of Dr. Roland Pattillo, a professor of gynecology at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA (Skloot, 2010, p. 49). It took three days for Rebecca Skloot to convince Dr. Pattillo that she can be trusted to tell Henrietta’s story (Skloot, 2010, p.

When Henrietta was this far away from home and in a new environment, it frightened her into staying quiet and therefore, not understanding what her treatment was. Although the doctors weren’t treating her differently than other patients because of her race, she almost needed to be advised differently because she didn’t understand what was happening to her body. Skloot states, “For Henrietta, walking into Hopkins was like entering a foreign country where she didn’t speak the language…she’d never heard the words cervix or biopsy.” (pg 16) By feeling uncomfortable and unwelcomed in the hospital environment, it created a toxic cycle of African Americans stating that they are fine when something is seriously wrong with their health and are in need professional care. This fear seems to be rooted in the oppression that white doctors set on black patients because these doctors are seen to be of a higher class at the time. Proving truth behind Henrietta's fear was the unethical mindset of Richard Wesley TeLinde, who used poor patients’ tissue without telling them, believing that this was their payment of their free service. Researchers and doctors with similar mindsets to TeLinde’s is what created the power institutional racism which lead African American, like Henrietta, to have no

Her cells were taken and back then in the twentieth century, colored people had no say in anything they do which is obviously unfair. Researchers such as David Kroll say that, “ Hela cells would be worth around $10,000,” (Kroll 12). Henrietta and her family really needed the money. In Henrietta’s condition it is unethical to compensate study participants in research studies because they took her cells without her consent. In her condition where she was living in poverty and was undereducated, it is absolutely unfair for her and her family. They used her Hela cells without her consent and get no money for it. Henrietta Lack’s cells were taken back then and she had no say in anything, which is unfair. You would not want to let someone use your Cells without your consent and without getting at least some money back for these rare cells. So it is unethical to compensate study participants in research studies. In the medical field in the twentieth century, it was a tough time. They ere trying to find medical cures that would be useful. Henrietta Lack’s Cells will change the world. Her cells have been used in vaccinations to treat polio and many other medical illnesses. Ethics began and the medical research advancements and Henrietta Lacks was sadly a victim of unethical

The hospital kept everything separate including blood samples marking Henrietta’s samples as “colored” so they wouldn't get mixed up with any white blood. It is believed that if Henrietta was Caucasian she would have be asked if the hospital could have samples of her cells. Henrietta questioned that her cancer was spreading, but in Baltimore, everyone understood that segregation was law, and African Americans didn't question the judgement of Caucasian professionals (63). Many African Americans were just happy that Johns Hopkins would treat them considering how much discrimination was surrounded by hospitals at the time (64). After weeks of complaining to the doctors that her condition was getting worse they still wouldn't recognize that there was any problem with Henrietta.