Summary: The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks was born on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia. Lacks died of cervical cancer on October 4, 1951, at age 31. Cells taken from her body without her knowledge were used to form the HeLa cell line. Lacks's case has sparked legal and ethical debates over the rights of an individual to his or her genetic material and tissue.

Can you imagine going to the doctor and doing whatever that doctor told you was the best for you without asking questions? Well that is what patients did in the 1950s, especially African Americans, who were still being victims of racial prejudice and segregation. In this book, the author, Rebecca Skloot tells us about Henrietta Lacks, a 31 year old African American woman who was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and trusted her doctors, who took a sample of her cells without her knowledge. These cells would help in scientific discoveries that helped millions of people. Henrietta died of cancer and her family is devastated when they find out that the cells had been taken without permission, and that they were being sold for profit.

The treatment of African Americans in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks demonstrates the lack of ethics in the United States health care system during the 1950s and 1960s. Under the impression that medical doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital were solely injecting radium treatment for cervical cancer, Henrietta Lacks laid on the surgical bed. During this procedure Dr. Lawrence Wharton Jr. shaved two pieces of tissue from her vagina, one from a healthy cervical tissue and one from the cancerous tumor, without Henrietta’s prior knowledge. After recovering from her surgery Henrietta exited the door marked, “Blacks Only,” the door that signified the separation between White and African-American patients. Had Henrietta been White, would the

Racism is immortal just like Henrietta’s cells it will always be around. People would do anything to be the first to discover something. At the end of the day it’s all about the money. The Mississippi appendectomies and the Tuskegee experiments were similar in the way that the government forced treatment upon minorities without consent. Henrietta’s case was different than Mississippi and Tuskegee because the doctor in Johns Hopkins didn’t experiment on her actual body but on her cells without consent. Henrietta’s case the Tuskegee experiments and the Mississippi Appendectomies are all different cases in different locations but serve the same purpose which is to take advantage of poor and uneducated minorities to

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.

Cancer is experimented with HeLA on Patients without their consent. The work is done by Chester South Thames.

Within the novel The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks written by Rebecca Skloot, the exponential growth of research due to the introduction of HeLa cells is exemplified through the vast scientific breakthroughs achieved. Before the presence of HeLa cells scientist had an endless amount of questions and theories but were unable to test their hypothesis due to lack of a perfect test subject. HeLa cells grew in almost every medium and most importantly, they grew fast. HeLa cells were especially useful when trying to study viruses, and the effects of certain antibiotics and other medicinal substances. Part 3 of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks provides multiple instances where the use of HeLa cells was detrimental for medical research. One major use for Henrietta's cell was the medical

Rebecca Skloot is a writer who met the Lacks family whilst investigating the origins of HeLa Cells. She helped the Lacks family in order to win their trust and actually talk to them about their life with Henrietta while she could still breathe. Rebecca’s book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is a story that tells about the legacy of Henrietta Lacks, life, death, and immortality.

In 2010, Rebecca Skloot published her book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a result of her discovery and findings devoted to Henrietta’s life story along with her family members, and revived the real person behind tremendous scientific accomplishments sprung of immortal HeLa cells’ exploitation. The research involving HeLa cells has changed the landscape of medical study, leading to scientific and medical breakthroughs that continues today. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of breast cancer and leukemia; helped lead to important advances in vitro fertilization, cloning, genetic hybrids, gene mapping in virology, scientific standards, live cell transport, for profit distribution of cells, space

What exactly is Public Health? Public Health entails generating facts about the health status of a population. The population can be a community, a class or group of people, i.e., Male, Female, White, Hispanic, African-American, wealthy or not, and/or any of the above. Once facts are known empirically, steps to improve the health status of that group can be designed, tested and ultimately rolled out on a larger scale. In the novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, there are multiple topics relating to Public Health policies (laws), research and education that are discussed and argued. Eventually, this changed Health Care into what it is to date. Throughout decades, without her knowledge, and with the use of her immortal, reproducing cancer cell line known as HeLa cells, Henrietta Lacks along with various doctors and researchers changed the face of Public Health policy, research and education. The use of her cancer cells and the outcomes of various experiments and studies has been debated for a long time and causes people to question moral, religious and ethical factors.

In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Henrietta never complained about the side effects of the chemotherapy treatment while she was suffering them. She was a strong woman. Judging by the strength Henrietta displays in the book, I believe that she would approve of their use without her consent if she could look back today because she put everyone before herself even while she was dying: “Henrietta didn’t tell anyone what Jones said. She simply went on with her day as if nothing had happened, which was like her – no sense upsetting anyone over something she could deal with herself (46)” In this quote, Henrietta initially chose not to tell anyone about her cancer diagnosis.

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

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.

Rebecca Skloot is the author of the book on the scientist contributor, Henrietta Lacks. She first learned of the HeLa cells during her biology community college class thirty years after Henrietta’s death and became interested in the person behind the cells ever since. Skloot became determined to tell the true story of Henrietta, and did whatever she could to find information. She presented numerous years of patience interviewing the Lacks to find out all the information she could about Henrietta and her family to give them the admiration they all deserve.

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