The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

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

In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. She has composed this biography of Henrietta Lacks to inform her readers about the hard reality that the Lacks family went through. In order to grasp a better understanding about this novel we will first uncover some details about Henrietta and her cells. Next, we will discuss how she came from a large family and that they were originally from Virginia. Finally, we will examine what she did after she moved to Baltimore and what happened after the move throughout the first two chapters.

Her family would later find out Henrietta was misdiagnosed. Henrietta went to John Hopkins for treatment due to it being the only hospital in her area who would treat African Americans. Many doctors during this time would use the public for research without the patient’s consent, and this happened to Henrietta. Without Henrietta’s permissions, a doctor treating Henrietta’s tumor proceeded to take tissue from her cancer tumors and her healthy cervical tissue. Her tissue ended up in Gey’s lab which were named HeLa. Two days later Henrietta’s cells began growing, and soon after Gey began giving samples of HeLa to his closest colleagues (Skloot 41). Henrietta never knew of her cells growing in the lab. Unfortunately, Henrietta’s cancer began to spread throughout her body. Treatment was not working for Henrietta, and she passed away October 4th, 1951 (Skloot 86). No one knew who Henrietta was for a long time, and she lost a lot of time of receiving credit for her cells. Henrietta’s cells ended up being sold for a profit by a manufacturer. Her family did not receive anything from Henrietta’s cells being used. Henrietta’s cells helped changed the medical world. Her cells were used for creating a polio vaccine and IVF. They also helped understand HPV, HIV, and AIDs. Henrietta’s cells have done a lot for cancer research. However, Henrietta’s family suffered deeply after her death, and

Sixteen-year-old Rebecca Skloot was sitting in a college biology class when she first heard of Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cells. In class, Rebecca saw how the HeLa cells were able to reproduce and “they became the first immortal human cells ever grown in a laboratory” (Skloot 4). Henrietta Lack was also a black woman. Rebecca became very interested and wanted to know more, but at the end of class the professor told her that there this very little information on Henrietta. This spurred Rebecca’s interest even more. She began extensive research on this topic to satisfy this interest. We worked through graduate school and finally tried to reach out to the Lacks family for more information. It turns out that there had been some unpleasantness in the family history and it was challenging for them to talk about Henrietta. Once their stories were told, Rebecca put enough puzzle pieces of Henrietta’s life together, and she constructed a book entitled The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

In 1951, Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer at John Hopkins Hospital. Henrietta complained of a knot in her womb that caused her pain so she decided to visit the hospital in search of diagnosis. After being diagnosed with cervical cancer, the doctor recommended a biopsy be done on her cancerous tissue. Without any consent, Henrietta’s doctors took tissue samples from her cervix and attempted to grow them and keep them alive. These cells were known as HeLa cells, they began to grow at an unbelievable rate; The HeLa cell became vital for the development of vaccines and other scientific research. However because of Henrietta’s race and economic standpoint, Henrietta Lacks and the rest of the Lacks family was exploited by doctors. The exploitation of the family allowed the doctors and researchers to benefit scientifically and monetarily.

In the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta lacks by Rebecca Skloot, it discusses the many people that contributed to create the legacy of Henrietta's cells. Henrietta lacks had no knowledge of this happening. In 1951, she died from cervical cancer. It was diagnosed to her at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Before dying, a doctor cut out small cancer cells. These cells were crucial because they were used to advance the first immortal cell line. These cells gave guidance to scientist that made very important developments in medicine.

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.

After seeking treatment 20 miles away at Johns Hopkins Hospital, her biopsy came back showing that she was in stage I of cervical cancer. Henrietta decided to keep this saddening news from her family. David or “Day” who was Henrietta’s husband and also cousin, drove her back to Johns Hopkins for treatment. Her treatment involved inserting radium into her cervix, then closing her up. What her doctor, Howard Jones, didn’t mention however, was that he took a sample of tissue from her tumor without mentioning it to Henrietta before or after he operated. Back in this era, doctors ran experiments on black women to compensate for them not having a pay a medical bill. The tissue sample was sent to George Gey, the man in charge of all culture and tissue samples who was eagerly looking for a way to separate cells and get them to grow to be able to make infinite amounts of cells that can be used for future experiments. Gey found that Henrietta’s cells were growing at a miraculous rate, like nothing he had ever seen before. This finding was exactly what Gey had been looking for that led him to a discovery that medical technology had never seen

She arrived at John Hopkins hospital get treated for cancer but the surgeon decided to cut out samples of her cells along with the healthy cells as well. She never granted permission for any of the actions they proceeded. The director of research at the hospital related to tissue culture, George Gey, found a outstanding difference of the behavior of cells removed from her body. They were different than his other collections. The cells were placed in the culture, which showed rapid growth and doubled everyday. They were named HeLa cells. They had done a lot of medical research in the past, which led up up to curing many

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

George Gey and without her consent or knowledge he took the tissue samples that created the HeLa frenzy. However, Gey kept the identity of Henrietta a secret until his final years and it was often reported incorrectly that HeLa stood for Helen Lane. Ultimately, the treatments she received from John Hopkins were not enough and Henrietta passed away at the tender age of 31. Part two, Death explores the impact HeLa cells had on the world and the chaos it caused her family. After Henrietta’s death, her children were left in the care of her malicious cousin Ethel and was subjected to child neglect and abuse. The baby of the siblings Zakariyya suffered the worst at her hands and the experience molded his tumultuous behavior. Deborah, who was the driving force behind the book, suffered mentally and physically as well growing up, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to seek information about her mother and sister Elsie. Though, the biggest downfall was that Henrietta’s family developed a mistrusting attitude towards doctors and refused to get the proper help needed to treat an assortment of ailments. HeLa, on the other hand, was saving the lives of millions and being massed produced globally for an array of

HL Research paper In the book the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a story of an African-American woman whose cancer cells were taken to do medical research on illegally. She was born in Roanoke, Virginia in the 1920’s in the Jim crow era. The book written by Rebecca Skloot who has an important role due to getting Debora Lacks to talk about what had happened to her mother in the 1950’s. The story takes place in the Baltimore 1900’s when treatment and healthcare for Henrietta was not expectable compared to what it would have been today.

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.

After Gey succeeded to find the immortal human cells, he started to sell HeLa cells without Henrietta’s consent. “Gey sells HeLa cells to researchers in Texas, India, New York, and many others place” (Skloot 84). He did not give any credit to Henrietta. He only told Henrietta that her cells will help many people in the future. “In fact, in the future HeLa cells were contribute into polio vaccine; develop drugs for treating herpes, leukemia, influenza, hemophilia, and Parkinson’s disease” (Skloot 22). Hela cells were also used in cancer treatment and were the first cells that were shot into space.

“The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks” written by Rebecca Skloot exposes the truth about a colored woman, Henrietta Lacks, who died from cancer leaving five children and a husband behind. Before her death doctors took her cells,without her or her family consent, to do there own research and experiments. They discovered that her cells were immortal, they became the first immortal cells known as the HeLa cells..After the discoverment the Lacks family were never told that Henrietta Lacks cells were used, bought and sold. Through the HeLa cells the scientist had made money while Henrietta kids were mistreated and were in poor situations.It wasnt till 25 years later that the Lacks family found out about the HeLa cells doing miracles. Rebecca Skloot though “The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” was able to explain the unethical situations that the Lacks family faced after Henrietta’s death.