The And The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

The story “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” that’s written by Rebecca Skloot. The author talks about a story happened in the 1950’s, and it’s effects still happening. The aspect that controls the story is power of privilege. In all places, in all times, power of privilege is specified for people who called elite. They get this power to control situations, but it does not mean they all deserve handling this power. This power created to control everything and improve or develop it. It is just considered under the actions that seem like what Skloot mentions in the story, but this power is related to all things in our life. Now, let’s go back to the story, and see the effects of that power under the wrong usage. At that period of time, the power of privilege was controlled by whites. The separation that was between blacks and whites, and the arrogance that some white people had encouraged them to insult black people. Dr. George Gey is the one of the doctors who used their power to do something no one at that time knew it’s consequences, which is taking the cells. On the other hand, Henrietta whose cells were stolen with out her permission. Finally, the results mostly affected Deborah which is Henrietta’s daughter.

The definition of power is a person or thing that possesses or exercises authority or influence. Power is gained by people over time, but it comes much easier to those born into a privilege, which is a right, immunity, or benefit enjoyed only by a person beyond the advantages of most. It is apparent that power and privilege go hand in hand. In the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot focuses on two stories: the development of the HeLa cells and the lives of Henrietta’s family members. While in the scientific world of HeLa cells, the power is held by the doctors such as George Gey and others because of their rank in society above common people. Being born into privilege was not a luxury the Lacks family enjoyed; the path to power for the Lacks was much more difficult.

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

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.

In her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot discusses how the unfortunate diagnosis of cancer for one woman resulted in one of the most influential discoveries in the biomedical sciences. The use of HeLa cells has played a role in some of the largest scientific breakthroughs since George Gey discovered how well they can grow in culture. On the other hand, Skloot’s work also provides a look at the lives of Henrietta Lacks’ descendants. One characteristic that everyone in this family shares 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 view bodies. Specifically,

Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks should be included as a work of summer reading for its model of literary merit and valuable entertainment.

This book really leads me to consider some important and essential issues in scientific research. In my point of view, the first theme of the book is the morality and ethical issue. As we all know, under the today’s regulation and laws, the right

As documented in the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” written by Rebecca Skloot, Henrietta lived her childhood in the segregated rural south. There was no real inspiration for her to attend school, much less develop a strong interest in getting a formal education. Segregation contributed to a cycle of oppression and poverty that affected Henrietta’s knowledge, and quality of life. The unfair early education laws, impaired all black children’s potential to learn, and negatively affected their confidence. America has laws that intend on producing, equal education for all children regardless of economic circumstances, race, religion, or academic ability level. On the other hand, a studied by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, find that “public school, especially in the south, is becoming re-segregated at a surprising level.”(Hancock Jones) Today there is evidence that suggest public education still needs equal protection reform in order to give all children a high quality education.

In the non fiction biography, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot, depicts the repercussions of the loss of a parent by explaining how Henrietta's death was indirectly connected to her mother's death. Henrietta had a crazy life full of disease, STDs, incest, and scientific breakthroughs but everything that caused her to die is an indirect cause of her mother's death. After Henrietta's mom, Eliza, died while giving birth to her 10th child Henrietta and her 8 siblings were split up among relatives because their father, John, was an impatient man incapable of taking care of all 9 children. Henrietta was given to her grandfather, Tommy, who already had his grandson, Dale (aka Day), living with him.

In Rebecca Skloot’s, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Skloot refers to many scientists who have worked with HeLa cells. Since the discovery of HeLa cells, scientists have discovered various cures, medicines, and new information. Skloot refers to the discoveries from other scientists, in order to validate the research and ideas made by Leigh VanValen. VanValen believes that HeLa cells became a different species than the original cells taken from Henrietta, which is an accurate statement. VanValen states, “‘HeLa cells are evolving separately from humans, and having a separate evolution is really what a species is all about’” (Skloot 216). VanValen supports the idea that HeLa cells are a different species because HeLa cells have the ability

In the novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot the author, provides multiple instances of the diseases that Lack, and her family suffer from. Skloot's first evidence of disease is the recognition of Henrietta's sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea and syphilis, which were induced by her husband sleeping around with other women (Skloot, 2010, Pg.16). Additionally, and of the most importance, Henrietta also suffered from cervical cancer which ultimately lead to her death and the discovery of HeLa Cells. In addition to her own diseases, Henrietta also had a Daughter named Elsie who suffered from epilepsy, Mental deficiencies, and neurosyphilis. Elsie's Neurosyphilis was caused by Henrietta's lack of care towards continuing

Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was fascinated by Henrietta and her cells and wanted to tell the story of her life. Lacks never got much credit for her contribution to science and Skloot wanted to share the huge impact her cells gave to medical research. However, Skloot needed contacts to Henrietta’s family in order to get the facts about her life. She did not realize exactly how much she was about to learn. When Skloot finally got in contact with the family she learned they were very skeptical about giving out information of Henrietta.

In the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, the author Rebecca Skloot introduces the reader to a painful story of Lack’s family. The main character of the book, Henrietta Lack, had survived the interplay of poverty, race and science, as well as one of the significant medical discoveries of the century. In her book, the author narrates the lucid science tackling the issue of spookiness of the cells from spiritual perspective that the family was associated with while acknowledging that their mother was immortal. In fact, the author analyses compressively the various aspects of Henrietta Lack’s life and the HeLa cells which have made her life endless. "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" dwells upon an uncanny thing in the cancer cells of the cervix of Henrietta Lack.

Human cells are known to regenerate every seven years, but what if they regenerated every second? In the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks written by Rebecca Skloot, talks about a woman named Henrietta Lacks, she suffered with cervical cancer for years, but what she didn’t know is she had a rare case of a cell line called The Hela Cell Line. These cells are the first human cells that are continuously grown in culture. These studies are similar to the ones in the book Survival of the Sickest written by Sharon Moalem, explaining how your body reacts in severe weather and ruthless circumstances. In this book, it also touches on the topic about how diabetes helped people survive in the Younger Dryas ice age. The

SWBAT read and analyze portions of the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and share their findings with their peers through a jigsaw activity.