The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Essay

Rebecca Skloot, however, used a different perspective in her portrayal of Lacks. This is evident in the way in which she conducted her research and the way she wrote the book. Skloot’s book, The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, included both the “scientific element concerns the origin and the subsequent uses of the HeLa cell line of cultured cancer cells” (Harper, 2011, p. 463) and the social and

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 Henrietta Lacks Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, who is donating a portion of her book’s proceeds to the Foundation. Henrietta was a poor black farmer whose cancer cells had damaging consequences for her family who today can’t afford access to the health care advances their mother’s cells helped make possible. The Foundation strives to provide financial assistance to needy individuals who have made important contributions to scientific research without personally benefiting from those contributions, particularly those used in research without their knowledge or consent. The Foundation gives those who

Skloot’s powerful message and use of literary devices should make her book common in a high–school classroom. Unlike the labs who classified her as simply “HeLa”, Skloot took the initiative to reveal who the woman of the immortal cells truly was. As stated by her daughter Deborah,“[e]verything [is] always just about the cells and [people] don’t even worry about her name and [if] HeLa was even a person” (Skloot 52). In order to achieve her purpose of revealing the immortal life of not only the cells but the person, Skloot uses ethos, pathos, and logos within her research of the Lacks and scientific community, to write her book accurately and sufficiently. Skloot is able to justify her story based on years of research and interviews, which a student can mock to write a research paper (to note, at the end of the book Skloot has 21 pages of notes to validate all sources of information). A example of this is regarding the Lacks family who questioned, “if our mother cells done so much for medicine, how come her family can’t afford to see no doctors?” (9). In order to complete this book, Skloot had to explain herself and her research to them, while simultaneously forming “a deep personal bond” (7). Similarly, the author had to sift through medical journals and family reflections to

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.

After her death in 1951, for six decades, Henrietta Lacks did not exist in the eyes of the society, but her cells did. How? Well, the answer is quite simple. HeLa Cells are the first immortal human cells. These cells never die and multiply every twenty-four hours. After spending 10 years to perfect her first book, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot essentially captured the life, the death, and aftermath of Henrietta Lacks’ life. With controversial issues regarding science, ethics, race, and class Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey. From the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells, from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover,

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot, is a national bestseller and is considered one of the most engaging pieces of nonfiction literature of all time. Through her own perspective, Skloot offers the reader insight on the life of Henrietta Lacks, both prior and during her battle against cervical cancer. In doing so, Skloot captures the corruption of the medical professionals in the 1950s and contributes details of her personal account with the Lacks family. Overall, Skloot retells the story of Henrietta Lacks, while incorporating central aspects such as violation of ethics, discrimination against minorities, corruption of medical professionals, and scientific advancements that have

In the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot presents multiple situations that involves Henrietta Lacks and other minorities. More importantly, Skloot talks about Henrietta’s poor treatment. The author provides the similarities between Henrietta Lacks, John Moore, and Mohan Chakraborthy’s treatment. She constantly defends minorities throughout the text because they received an awful treatment. In fact, the doctors were careless with their minority patients.

In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Skloot pictures the life of both Henrietta and her family. Skloot first starts with illustrating the early and adolescent life of Henrietta, and also ending it with Henrietta’s fight with cervical cancer. Skloot covers heavily on the ethics of researchers or scientists taking cells of Henrietta without her consent. The medical field becomes more involved with the creation of the HeLa cell line and starts getting out of control. Therefore, causing problems between the Lacks family and the hospitals.

The book of 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks ' is about a mother that had die with a unknown cancers in which her cancerous cells stayed alive outside her body. Her family doesn 't knowns until many years later when reporters and doctors starts to talk about her mothers cells in world wide. Her family wants to learn more about her mothers cells but not many of the reporter and doctors are much help. Until Rebecca Skloots the authors of this book helps her family to understand more about Henrietta cells and helps the future Lacks family education. Throughout this book they were many themes that stand out, but what caught my attention the most were the lack of education, cells and tissue ownership, and the trust.

In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot, a college student learns about Henrietta Lacks, becomes infatuated with her life, and wants uncover the mystery behind the cells that made history. Henrietta Lacks is an African American woman who died of cervical cancer. During the time of her treatment, her cells were “stolen” from her, taken to a lab and grown to aid in scientific research. These cells were known to society as “HeLa cells”, which assisted with vaccine discoveries and helped scientist receive a better understanding of human life. Although HeLa cells played a significant role in human advancement, Henrietta Lacks and her family suffered tremendously. Henrietta did not give consent for her cells to be taken or used for research, which

To begin with, perhaps one of her largest inequalities was racism, as it was to many blacks at the time. Henrietta experienced racism from the beginning of her life to the very end. One may think that a person’s life would not depend on race, however

Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, tells the story of the evolution of HeLa cells through life, death, and immorality. She introduces the Lacks family: Henrietta, Day, Deborah, Lawrence, Gladys, Elsie, Sonny, and other intermediate relatives involved. Over the decades, death consumed several family members but it never kept them from remembering… the thief of Henrietta’s cells.

Henrietta Lacks: an unknown name up until recent years. A name that had been known to the world only as HeLa; The first two letters of a name that belonged to a poor African American tobacco farmer that unknowingly changed science and life as we know it today. Her life has finally been portrayed in a very intimate story that not only does her life some justice but also transcendentally brings to mind the philosophical issues concerning medical ethics both of the past, present, and the future. In a world of constantly evolving medical advancement, science is a pivotal force that propels ideas forward. Although most will agree that the knowledge and cures found are a positive aspect, there is also a necessary evil that is involved, including

The effect the discovery and creation of the HeLa cells made on the science community and Henrietta’s family had a domino effect. Both had different opinions and beliefs on the matter; this led to some difficult questions asked of the family and of the medical community. Due to the new and advanced methods of experimentation, the HeLa cells made to to the field of science, the scientific community and the media failed to remember that Henrietta and her family were not abstractions but actual people. Rebecca Skloot, however, took into account the Lack’s family, she inquired both the history of the HeLa cells as well as the Lacks family, treating them as actual people with inalienable rights.