The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

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

Did you know the Nazis have been doing research on diseases? In the book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” Skloot explains how the Nazis are associated with using prisoners to do research on diseases.

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,

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.

Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed for cervical cancer in 1951 in the black wing of John Hopkins Hospital by Doctor George Gey. At the time, Gey was searching for cells that could survive on their own in a petrie dish. He took samples from many, if not most, of his patients in hopes of finding cells that would survive on their own. His attempts were unsuccessful until he took a sample of Henrietta Lack's tumor, which managed to not only stay viable but reproduced at a rapid pace. But, there was a catch. Henrietta Lacks and her family had no idea that Gey took her cells or that he and other doctors would make billions of dollars off of her cells long after she died and left her five kids and husband to live in poverty. Skloot tells the fascinating

In the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” the author, Rebecca Skloot, discusses many important points. The main point of this informative novel is how doctors from Hopkins hospital captured cells from an African American woman to study possible outcomes to many new ideas. This main point unfolds an analysis of how this event made many new discoveries, immortal memories, and prevented Henrietta’s family from varies negative situations. Firstly, this event helped unfold many new discoveries to medicine and to the medical revolution.

Henrietta Lacks was an African-American patient at Johns Hopkins Hospital located in Baltimore, Maryland who unknowing donated cancerous tumor cells during a biopsy for her cervical cancer. George Otto Gey cultured the cells to create the HeLa cell line. The HeLa is the first human, immortal cell line and is used in modern medical research today. She is the subject of the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was an interesting read. It includes some interesting points I have not thought of being in the medical field. Henrietta lacks is the main character who gets diagnosed with cervical cancer and passes away in 1951. Her cancerous cells which were illegally passed to a doctor were the first immortal human cell line, named HeLa cells. Rebecca Skloot is the narrator of the book she goes through how the access to Henrietta's cancerous cells allowed for important discoveries to help aid others in the 21st century.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is a nonfiction book about Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman living in the 1920’s-1950’s. When she was thirty, doctors diagnosed Henrietta with cervical cancer. Doctors at John’s Hopkins took her cells without her permission and used these cells to create the first and most widely used cell line, named HeLa after Henrietta’s initials. Soon after the doctors took Henrietta’s cells, she died from her vicious cervical cancer, however her cells lived on in the hands of scientists around the world. Since then, her cells have been mass produced and used to test the polio vaccine, research cancer, AIDS, radiation, and human longevity, and develop drugs for treating herpes, leukemia, and hemophilia. Henrietta’s family did not know anything about the HeLa cell line until twenty-five years after Henrietta’s death, and even after HeLa cells created a multimillion-dollar industry, Henrietta’s family never received compensation. Even now, Henrietta remains widely unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance.

However, two samples of Henrietta's cervix were removed—a healthy part and a cancerous part—without her permission during her radiation treatments for the tumor. These samples were then distributed among various scientists by Dr. George Gey, launching a multimillion dollar industry her family didn’t know about. Henrietta Lacks was an amazing human being and will always be remembered in the field of science as an immortal human being. Her cells were vital to the discovery of many medical discoveries and inventions we have

In the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’ by Rebecca Skloot informs us about immortal cells and what they do with them. Throughout the excerpt Skloot claims that Southman was withholding information from patients that should be told. Skloot has relevant and sufficient evidence to support this claim although he mainly did it to maintain his study going.

Henrietta Lacks was a poor 31- year- old African American woman with 5 children and a husband whose privacy was never taken into consideration. On February 1, 1951 Henrietta visited John Hopkins because of a painful knot in her cervix and nonstop vaginal bleeding. After her exam, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Cells from her tumor were removed without her consent or knowledge for research purposes Skloot states, “no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting samples or asked if she wanted to be a donor” (33). Those cells would eventually become the first immortal cells, which would create a big breakthrough in science and medical vaccines.

People easily view themselves as the main character of their story. We experience our lives from the first person perspective, our own perspective. We are the center of every single one of our experiences. But what about everyone else? After all, we cannot be the main characters of every life story. We think very little if at all about what sort of life the barista serving us coffee has, or the daily woes that plague a fast food worker serving us burgers at a drive-through. We have a tendency to view others as functions of how they benefit us. Rebecca Skloot’s nonfiction novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a vivid illustration of this spirit of abstraction. The scientific community and the national media used Henrietta and her family as a commodity, exploiting them for their own benefit, forgetting that behind the cancer cells they took, lies a human being. This abuse was caused by an irresponsible sense of altruistic authority, journalistic encroachment and the phenomenon of groupthink.