The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Essay

Henrietta Lacks was a poor African American that became one of the most vital tools in developing medicines like polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and much more. She was a loving mother of five, wife, sister, and friend to many that was taken on October 4, 1951 at the age of thirty-one to cervical cancer. Henrietta’s cells were taken without her knowledge to develop the first ever immortal line of cells.

Henrietta Lacks is not a common household name, yet in the scientific and medical world it has become one of the most important and talked names of the century. Up until the time that this book was written, very few people knew of Henrietta Lacks and how her cells contributed to modern science, but Rebecca Skloot aimed to change this. Eventually Skloot was able to reach Henrietta’s remaining family and through them she was able to tell the story of not only the importance of the HeLa cells but also Henrietta’s life.

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

To Begin, Hennie came from a family of ten, they originally lived in Roanoke, Virginia in the 1920’s. In 1924 Hennie’s mother died while giving birth to her tenth child. Johnny Lacks, Henrietta’s father was now responsible for all ten children. But because of his health and little patience for the children they then moved to Clover, Virginia where the rest of the family lived and divided the children up between all family members. Henrietta ended up growing up and living with her grandfather, Tommy Lacks. She also grew up with her

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of Henrietta Lacks. In the early 1951 Henrietta discovered a hard lump on the left of the entrance of her cervix, after having unexpected vaginal bleeding. She visited the Johns Hopkins hospital in East Baltimore, which was the only hospital in their area where black patients were treated. The gynecologist, Howard Jones, indeed discovers a tumor on her cervix, which he takes a biopsy off to sent it to the lab for diagnosis. In February 1951 Henrietta was called by Dr. Jones to tell about the biopsy results: “Epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix, Stage I”, in other words, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Before her first radium treatment, surgeon dr.

Henrietta Lacks, a woman whose cells have made millions of dollars, but most people don’t know her name, or her story. “She’s usually identified as Helen Lane, but often she has no name at all. She’s simply called HeLa, the code name given to the world’s first immortal human cells – her cells cut from her cervix just months before she died. Her real name is Henrietta Lacks,” (Skloot 1). Through the last few months of her life, she had major struggles with hospitals and scientists. Henrietta was in serious pain throughout the last few months, and the doctor treated her as a specimen. “Henrietta is still a miserable specimen,” (Skloot 66). Another major flaw in Henrietta story is the fact that her family was barely told of her condition of cervical

Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman who lost her life to cervical cancer. Henrietta was born on August 1, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia (Skloot 18). Henrietta’s mother passed away, and Henrietta’s father could not raise ten children by himself. Her father took all ten children back to his hometown of Clover, Virginia where the children were divided between family members, and Henrietta ended up being raised by her grandfather who raised Henrietta and several of her cousins (Skloot 18). Henrietta grew up taking care of the family tobacco field, and she only went to school until the 6th grade. At 14, She had her first child with her cousin, David “Day” Lacks, and in 1939, Henrietta and Day had a daughter named Elsie who was developmentally

Henrietta Lack was born on August1, 1920 in Roanoke , VA . As she moved on in life she became the wife of David “Day” Lacks in 1935. The two eventually moved to Maryland and had four children Elsie, David Jr., Deborah, and Joseph. One day Henrietta was

Henrietta was the daughter of Johnny and Eliza Lacks Pleasant. Tommy Lacks was Henrietta and David "Day" Lacks grandfather that had raised them both, and at Tommy 's tobacco farm was where Henrietta and Day fell in love. At Tommy 's farm, there was a man named "Crazy Joe" Grinnan, who was Henrietta 's cousin, that was obsessed with Henrietta and once he found out that she was marrying Day, he tried to kill himself, but gladly his father found him and saved him. Henrietta had a sister, Gladys Lacks, who disapproved of their marriage, but that did stop them. Later on, Henrietta and Day had an amazing and wonderful family, including: her two daughters, Elsie Lacks(born Lucille Elsie Pleasant) and Deborah "Dale" Lacks; and her three sons, Lawrence Lacks, David Jr. "Sonny" Lacks, and Joe Lacks, who later changed his name to Zakariyya Bari Abdul Rahmen.

Henrietta Lacks was born on August 1, 1920 and passed away on October 4, 1951. Towards the end of Henrietta’s life, it was filled with pain and doctors attempting to save her, or at least find something useful for the science or medical field. On the bright side, she did have the pleasure of seeing her children and husband while staying in John Hopkins. Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks illustrates the importance of family in hard times, along with the racist health care system and the advances made in science to prove that even through something detestable, something superior will come of it.

Henrietta Lacks was born on August 1, 1920 in Virginia. Her original name was Lorretta Pleasant but soon changed her name to what most know to Henrietta Lacks. When she was 4 years old her mother passed away, and she was then sent to live with her grandfather on a plantation where she was a slave. She roomed with her first cousin, David Lacks. The two together had a baby boy in 1935 when Henrietta was 14. Then the two had another child 4 years later and named her Elsie. In 1941, the two married and moved to Maryland and had three more children. Then ten years later on January 29, 1951, Henrietta went

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.

Reading Response: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks The novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot in my opinion is a great book it has its sad parts and it also has many interesting parts that add to the plot of this story. I feel that this novel is sad because the main character who is named Henrietta Lacks is an Africa American woman that was living in a time of segregation and was diagnosed with cervical cancer which eventually led to her death. While being diagnosed with cancer in the hospital, doctors used her for research without her consent or knowledge.

The Lacks family would not let her talk to Deborah at first thinking she would have another stroke at the mention of the cells. Because of the stroke doctors had her on an assortment of pills that she could barely afford and would go on and off of them as her insurance changed, “when the Ambien ran out she stopped sleeping till she got more.”(255). When Deborah discovered her sister was put in an asylum and died there shortly after her mother died she, “broke out in hives – red welts covering her face, neck, and body, even the soles of her feet.” (231) the medical condition of Deborah makes the reader consider the story of the Lacks family and feel empathy for them and the stress they went through learning about the theft of Henrietta’s cells. In the opening of the book there is a passage titled Deborah’s voice in it she describes her understanding of what HeLa cells have done and what she thinks of those accomplishments at the end

The family feared what they believed were "night doctors who abducted black people for medical research"(Skloot). Because there was still discrimination then, they feared the worst. In my opinion the Lacks family was angry with the scientists using HeLa cells from Henrietta without the family's consent. I think they wanted everyone to know that Henrietta didn't donate her cells, they were taken without asking and without telling the family what was going to happen to them.