Vivian: Hello, it’s such an honor to be able to have you here today.
Henrietta: Hello, thank you for inviting me. I’m excited to be here.
V: So let’s start with how much you have done for this world. Your cervical cancer cells have led to many scientific advances and breakthroughs. In a CNN article, it says your cells “brought us the polio vaccine, in vitro fertilization and gene mapping. They’ve allowed for advances in cancer treatment, AIDS research, cloning, stem-cell studies and so much more. They traveled to the moon to test the effects of zero gravity, and scientists had sold and purchased them by the millions.” (Ravitz). How does it feel knowing that these came from your cells, and that you brought all of these amazing things into the world?
H: I feel quite shocked and amazed. It’s hard to imagine that these cancer cells would have the potential to do so much and have so much value because all I ever experienced with them was pain. But it is relieving to know that although I suffered, many people didn’t have to. It is comforting knowing that all my suffering wasn’t for nothing. I always just saw myself as any other black mother, but now I feel like a hero and more important knowing that information.
V: Essentially, the world has benefitted from you; what do you think about your family, or even yourself, not receiving any compensation from the start or acknowledgment? What are your thoughts about Dr. Gey and many other scientists profiting off you?
H: To put it simply, angry and upset. It is not fair that we received the recognition, we deserved so long ago, just recently. What has come from my body has helped millions of people, and yet my family and I are still suffering from the ripple effects of slavery and racism. We lived in poverty while well off white men, scientists, continued to exploit my family and me. I wouldn’t be as upset if Dr. Gey had the decency to let me know that my cells were going to be used him his experiments, but of course during that time blacks didn’t have the same rights to their own bodies as others did.
V: Many people, including myself, have learned about you and your family through Rebecca Skloot’s, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Even your children have learned
some pay equity progress has been made primarily in developed countries in Canada and Europe,
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
Baby Blues, the most common and mildest form of mood disorder can last up to two weeks after having a baby without the mother needing treatment.
1. This informative speech on “The Cause of Homelessness “is very Inform able and worth listening to, because in today’s economy it could be you or me. Some seem to think homelessness is choice. I find this speech relevant to the world I live in today, due to the high unemployment rate, declining job market, and the economic hardships that families are enduring. This topic is not a broad one, but yet can be spoke of in depth due to the fact I see many homeless people but never thought it would be me until I seen a family friend who has lost everything, this is what made me more aware that it is not just a choice and any day it could be me. So when you see
Henrietta Lacks died never knowing the impact her life would have on the world of medicine. A poor, black woman living in Baltimore, Maryland in the 1950s, Henrietta was diagnosed with cervical cancer and died only nine short months after her diagnosis at the age of thirty-one. The mother of five children, Henrietta most likely died thinking her family would be her legacy. Little did she know her doctor at John Hopkins hospital, George Gey, had taken some of her cells before she died. With Henrietta’s cells, Dr. Gey was finally able to achieve a goal he had been working toward for decades – creating the first line of immortal cells (Freeman). These cells have been used for countless scientific research and have solidified Henrietta Lacks’ place
Transition: I’ve told you about some attractions and the malls, Finally, I’m going to tell you about the hotels in Dubai and also some major possible future hotel projects.
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
First, Dr. Gey decided to take Henrietta Lacks’ (who had cervical cancer) cells without informing her and then sent them to be researched. Henrietta’s cells then became one of the biggest discoveries and
In her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot discusses how one woman’s unfortunate diagnosis of cancer resulted in the discovery of the first immortal human cell line, HeLa. The establishment of the HeLa cell line has proven to be one of the most influential breakthroughs in the biomedical sciences because these cells have played a major role in some of the largest breakthroughs in since they were first cultured in the 1950s. In addition to an examination of the science behind HeLa cells, Skloot also provides a look at the lives of Henrietta Lacks’s descendants. One characteristic that all members of the family share is a dedication to religion and spirituality. This juxtaposition between science and religion presents the body and its constituent cells in a unique way. It provides multiple dimensions to how people can view bodies. Specifically, Skloot’s depiction of HeLa cells presents the body and its individual cellular components as entities that exist as both scientific and spiritual beings simultaneously.
Rebecca Skloot’s bestseller, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, begins with a quote from World War II concentration camp survivor Elie Wiesel, “We must not see any person as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures, with its own source of anguish” (Wiesel qtd. in Skloot n. pag.). This quote serves as a preview of the book and its underlying moral purposes, as Henrietta Lacks and her family are continually treated as objects without rights to their privacy and without regards to their worth or feelings. The dehumanization of the Lacks family by the media and scientific community not only resulted in consequences for the family, but influenced society, as well.
This idea was blatantly ignored with the treatment of Henrietta and many others. Henrietta was a living, breathing, human being, that deserved equivalent treatment. She was instead, dehumanized into cells, her privacy invaded, and her family permanently damaged from the experience. Henrietta was not immortal. In reality, “Henrietta died at 12:15 a.m. on October 4, 1951” (86). From the unethical treatment she received to the blatant disregard for empathy with regard to her deathly illness, Henrietta was maltreated. John Moore’s case exposes the widespread nature of this problem. “It was very dehumanizing to be thought of as Mo,” claims Moore (201). “...I was Mo, I was the cell line, like a piece of meat” (201). John Moore endured the same as Henrietta. Both viewed as abstractions, their truths ignored. They both, however, hold a triumph. They contributed to the betterment of society, and helped to advance medical practices and cured countless
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.
This research paper is based on the findings from the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”. What you will read and come to know is nonfiction. I wish I could put the pictures of what I have seen and read together here for you to perhaps get a better understanding. A story based on not Henrietta’s life being that of immortality, but rather cancer cells removed from her body without her knowledge. These were the first cancer cells to reproduce outside of her body. You will come to know about Henrietta, her cancer, her cells, and her immortal life. Perhaps we can all learn to appreciate life in greater means of appreciation after reading and knowing the life and immortal afterlife of Henrietta Lacks. You will learn about a woman, who like us, had a family, and ended up not being able to truly live life to its fullest. Making us all realize just how cancer is and the amazing research that came from being able to reproduce her cells. Not just for cancer but for various other illnesses that plague so many of us. My hope is that you take away from this a better understanding of a time we do not know, for the ups and downs of science and the possibility of immortal life.
Create a 5-6 minute presentation using PowerPoint visuals. Make sure your PowerPoint follows the guidelines discussed in class. The purpose of the presentation should be to inform the audience. Your presentation should reflect a topic, theme, or issue relevant to your major. For ideas of topics, you may consider looking at issues of Crains’ Chicago, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, cnn.com, The Huffington Post, NPR.org, Slate, Wired, or industry-specific papers/journals in your area of study.
2. According to the Reproductive Rights Blog, the $114.5 million teen pregnancy prevention project signed into law by President Obama in December 2009 establishes a major turning point in U.S. sex education policy, according to a new analysis published in the Winter 2010 issue of the Guttmacher Policy Review. The project replaces many of the most firm and ineffective abstinence-only programs, which by law were required to have nonmarital abstinence promotion as their “exclusive purpose” and were prohibited from discussing the benefits of contraception.