The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Analysis

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a true story of a poor, Southern African-American tobacco farmer who died in 1951 at the very young age of 31 years old from cervical cancer. Little did she know that cells harvested from her tumor, which were obtained without her consent have lived on and on and became one of the most important tools in medicine today. Despite Henrietta’s story being full of legal and ethical issues, the story was one filled with success and anguish. Success for science as her cells served as advancement in medical research and development; yet was sorrowful for Henrietta and her family. This story occurred during a time of segregation in the United States, when Henrietta Lacks believed she

The novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, tells the journey between the author Rebecca and Deborah Lacks as they discover more about Deborah’s mother, Henrietta. As Rebecca is telling the story she includes herself as a character, and to me that aspect of the novel makes it easier to be able to connect with the other characters and the novel as a whole. Overall, Rebecca telling what she experienced throughout her time researching with Deborah gives much more depth to this novel. In this novel, you can truly relate to what Rebecca is feeling, see how the two bond together towards the end, and feel the impact that Deborah and even Henrietta had on Rebecca’s life.

There are two story line were presented in first chapter of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The first story line describes how Henrietta Lacks fought against cancer. The second story line describes how Rebecca Skloot dug out Henrietta Lacks’ story. Henrietta Lacks was born in Roanoke, Virginia, on August 1920. Loretta pleasant was her name when she was born. Her mom died when she was four years old. Her father send her to her grandpa Tommy Lacks. He is a tobacco farmer. In tommy’s house, she met David Lacks who is going to be her husband. They married in 1941. In the same year, the Second World War outbreak, the local steel plant need more people, Day start to work at Sparrows steel plant. Everything was all good until Henrietta found a bossing that

In 1951, a poor black tobacco farmer, named Henrietta Lacks, had her cells taken for a Hopkins’ doctor’s scientific pursuit. Little did Lacks and the doctor, George Gey, know that the cells rapidly multiplying in a petri dish in the tissue culture lab would fuel the exploration of some of the most important medical discoveries of the 20th century. While bioethics, poverty, science, faith, and medical developments are important issues that dictate the effects, motivations, and consequences of character’s actions, in the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, racism is still the most prominent theme in the story.

Death is the action or fact of dying or being killed; the end of the life of a person or

Author Rebecca Skloot did a fantastic job describing the racial politics and economic aspects surrounding the Henrietta Lacks case. What surprised me most was the contrast between the Johns Hopkins doctors and Lacks family following Henrietta’s death. While the educated Dr. George Gey and his team propagated millions of HeLa cells and laid the foundation for what later became a multibillion-dollar cell culture business, the Lacks family, especially the children, suffered in poverty and because of abuse. Specifically, while Gey shipped HeLa cells “around the country” (Skloot 95) and Tuskegee Institute churned out billions of cells, Ethel fed the Lacks children just one “cold biscuit” per day (111). With her mother gone, Deborah became an easy

Behind every breakthrough in a field, people have questioned the accuracy, risk, morality, and many other aspects of the breakthrough. Before man stepped on the moon, the President of the United States prepared a speech to give in the worst case scenario, because no one knew if the scientists were sending astronauts to their death. Before the US dropped atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, citizens protested and said it was unethical. However, the professionals involved in each situation weighed the pros against the cons and decided to push questionable ethics aside for the greater good. In the contemporary biographical novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot used the passion of the characters to show how the eithics and morality of important decisions have grey areas and can impact a large number of people in both negative and positive ways.

Truly such a great read with a powerful story, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is a non-fiction book that is about Henrietta Lacks and the immortal cell line, commonly known as HeLa. Taken without her knowledge, the renowned cells were collected from her cervical cancer cells in 1951. Lacks’ cells became one of the vital tools in medicine, essential for developing the polio immunization, cloning, gene mapping, and many more. Controversy rose when Henrietta’s cells were purchased and sold by the billions, yet she remains for all intents and purposes obscure, and her family cannot manage the cost of medical insurance.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a non-fiction book, and sometimes impersonal, like when the author is talking about the medical facts of Henrietta's cells. However, it is also very personal at times, like when she's talking about the Lacks family. In one scene (pgs. 283-285), the author chooses to swear in her narration and it makes the scene very powerful.

The theme I have selected for my book is “...Despite one’s best effort, humanity will not always return the favor. Life is not a balanced scale; life is a dance of give and take that can leave one person on top of the world and another buried six feet under.” This theme can be linked to my poster’s slogan: “It is possible to be chained by the stories we have yet to tell,” because the chains that bound the Lacks family were the cause of the unjustness they were subjected to. The image I selected represents my slogan and the characters in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks because they felt locked up, left to rot as they wondered what had happened to their mother. The chains are the lies, the secrets, and the manipulations that the Lacks family

The end of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks leaves the reader reeling with anger at the unfairness that the family has had to endure, and the fact that yet another generation has passed away with no resolution to their suffering. The book focuses on helping the Lacks family finally understand and come to terms with their misconceived beliefs surrounding their mother's death and the scientists who “stole” her cells. The book’s main source is Henrietta's daughter, Deborah. Deborah has spent much of her life obsessing over and being haunted by her mother’s cells; this book was her opportunity to show the world the women behind the famous HeLa cells and to get the justice that the family deserves. After forming an incredibly strong bond with

A section of this book was dedicated to Henrietta’s life, which was interesting to say the least. Henrietta persevered. At the beginning of her life, Henrietta grew up on a tobacco plantation, and was raised with a tremendous amount of cousin’s and family members. Personally, I was bothered by the fact that her husband was her cousin, but for that family it was normal, even though it deviated from what would be rational by today’s standards. At another time, when she became an adult, her family and her decided to move to Baltimore. Surprisingly, she spent the rest of her life there, eventually getting cancer and dying. The cancer spread quite fast, and it had extremely surprised me. Personally, I expect that the exposure to the extreme

The issue with health care in the United States is similar to a domino effect. Each sociological factor such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender all inter twine. This domino effect occurs when one factor connects to another factor in which creates a cycle. This cycle involves inequality, discrimination, and unequal distribution of quality. According to multiple research and scholarly articles, the health care system displays many issues and flaws when it comes to the care and coverage for people depending on their social status.

The social determinants of health encompass many factors which can be social, economic, and political (Lathrop, 2013). Social determinants of health do not only affect those that live in impoverished neighborhoods but also those that are ranked in the middle. Lathrop (2013) further discussed how the unequal distribution of wealth and the availability of resources can greatly affect a person’s health. Healthcare in the U.S is still a subject of discussion. As healthcare professionals, we have the opportunity to make a change and treat patients and families with utmost respect and provide a high level of care regardless of their social status.

The novel, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is divided into 3 sections: life, which tells the reader about Henrietta’s life and the birth of HeLa; death, which consists of times after Henrietta’s death, and lastly; immortality, which discusses how Henrietta’s cells have become immortal. Overall, the book is based on Henrietta and the lives of her children and how they cope with the way medical science has treated their mother. Though the book is not written in chronological order, Skloot does a good job of organizing her information according to its section.