The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

Rebecca Skloot’s bestseller, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, begins with a quote from World War II concentration camp survivor Elie Wiesel, “We must not see any person as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures, with its own source of anguish” (Wiesel qtd. in Skloot n. pag.). This quote serves as a preview of the book and its underlying moral purposes, as Henrietta Lacks and her family are continually treated as objects without rights to their privacy and without regards to their worth or feelings. The dehumanization of the Lacks family by the media and scientific community not only resulted in consequences for the family, but influenced society, as well.

"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks", by Rebecca Skloot, is about an African American woman born and raised in Roanoke, Virginia, and later dying in Baltimore, Maryland. Through her a life she battled a cancer that was often called a cervical cancer, and she later died in Baltimore, Maryland. Henrietta Lacks, born as Loretta Pleasant, is commonly known for her cancer cells called, HeLa, which is a name made from the first two letters of her first and last name. This book was very informational, not only for family purposes, but for science too. It has a lot to relate to science, whether readers realize it or not.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a book written by Rebecca Skloot in 2010 that tells the story of Henrietta Lacks and the immortal cell line known as HeLa found in her cervical cancer cells in 1951. Rebecca Skloot first heard about Henrietta Lacks in a college biology classroom back when she was a teenager. Henrietta Lacks was a 31 years old black tobacco farmer who died of cancer, and without her or her family’s knowledge, a sample of the HeLa cell was taken from her and was used in medical researches. The HeLa cells were the first human cells to survive and multiply, and since it was taken has been used in scientific research all over the world, and have played a huge role in medical

Uncountable major scientific discoveries, such as, the polio vaccine and blood pressure medicines came from the same root: HeLa cells; for several years no one questioned where the cells came from or what its initials stand for, although numerous studies across the world used and bought these cells. Rebecca Skloot, the author of the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” performed a research investigating the origin of HeLa cells and the woman behind them. Based on her findings, the story imparted injustice, not only against Henrietta, but also her family. Given all benefits HeLa cells brought, anyone could guess the owner of the cells, Henrietta, was well compensated, nevertheless, the unfortunate reality is her cells were stolen.

In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot follows the story of the famous HeLa cell line, introducing us to the woman behind these cells, the family she came from, and how her cells swept the field of science. This book tells the story of how race, poverty, and the practices used in the fields of science and medicine in the last 100 years has led to the many of the modern day innovations we have, all thanks to the HeLa cells.

The literature The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was written by a journalist, Rebecca Skloot. Henrietta Lacks was one of ten children born on August 1, 1920 in Clover, Virginia (Skloot, 2010, p. 18). After Henrietta’s mother passed away in 1924, she went to live with her grandfather, Tommy Lacks and her cousin, David Lacks (Skloot, 2010, p. 19). Her grandfather raised both children in his home. As children, Henrietta and David worked the tobacco farm together with other cousins (Skloot, 2010, p. 19). As life progressed, David and Henrietta married and had five children together (Skloot, 2010, p. 24). Later on, they moved to Turner Station near Baltimore, Maryland (Skloot, 2010, p. 26). In January 1951, Henrietta found a solid lump

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot, begins by sharing Henrietta Lack’s journey of becoming the dehumanized HeLa cell. Henrietta was a poor, black woman who grew up in the era of institutionalized racism, which created no way for her to become educated and therefore, unable to further herself or her family. Skloot shows how Henrietta’s race dictated her life by leaving her with no choice in hospital, no chance in understanding her treatment, and no identity to her own ‘immortal’ cells.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks investigates both abstract and concrete subjects. The story of Henrietta’s cells and their use in science is intertwined with the narrative of the family, as well as ethical questions, HeLa left behind. The tangible topic of HeLa cells is the foundation for this book- cells that were taken without the patient’s informed consent, never died, and became the catalyst for extraordinary scientific advances as well as extraordinary profits. HeLa’s history invites less palpable subjects; themes of racism, exploitation of the Lacks family, and questions of scientific ethics and tissue ownership also characterize this book. We are first introduced to the topic of Henrietta’s cells as the author encounters the subject,

Rebecca Skloot tells the story of Henrietta lacks and her cells that were taken from her without permission and used for a number of scientific advancements. Skloot addresses issues of bioethics in her book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. She makes emotional appeals, builds her character, and makes logical appeals to celebrate the HeLa cells and make the case for Henrietta’s family to be compensated for the cells. This book focuses on the story of the family, life, and death of Henrietta Lacks.

What exactly is Public Health? Public Health entails generating facts about the health status of a population. The population can be a community, a class or group of people, i.e., Male, Female, White, Hispanic, African-American, wealthy or not, and/or any of the above. Once facts are known empirically, steps to improve the health status of that group can be designed, tested and ultimately rolled out on a larger scale. In the novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, there are multiple topics relating to Public Health policies (laws), research and education that are discussed and argued. Eventually, this changed Health Care into what it is to date. Throughout decades, without her knowledge, and with the use of her immortal, reproducing cancer cell line known as HeLa cells, Henrietta Lacks along with various doctors and researchers changed the face of Public Health policy, research and education. The use of her cancer cells and the outcomes of various experiments and studies has been debated for a long time and causes people to question moral, religious and ethical factors.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot tells a women born into sharecropping and slavery. She moved north to have a better life only to be robbed right before dying. Her family thought she was gone forever, but then soon found out that she was still alive in a way that they could have never imagined. While undergoing treatment for that cancer the doctors from Johns Hopkins took samples of cells from the tumor inside of her cervix, without her permission or even notifying Mrs. Lacks. Those cells then transformed the medical world by letting scientist culture cells rapidly thus making the process for creating vaccines shorter.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, focuses on Henrietta Lacks as a real woman rather than what she is known for, her cells. Henrietta Lacks was a poor hardworking woman and diagnosed with cervical cancer. Due to lack of money and her ethnic background, it was difficult for her to get the proper care. She ended up going to John Hopkins Hospital because they saw African American patients. At John Hopkins, they did a biopsy of her cervix.

In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, the family of Henrietta is never given true Justice. Justice is fair treatment. When righteousness, equitableness, and respect is shown that is true justice. Religion, race, or gender should never affect how a person should be treated, they deserve to be given equal justice to any other person. The Lacks family never received justice. Therefore, they were never informed that John Hopkins toke Henrietta's cells and they never knew that they would be so helpful to science. At the time Henrietta’s cells were taken, there was no law for informing or obtaining consent from cell donors. Until years later did the family of Henrietta find out that the famous HeLa cells were not Helen Lane’s or Helen Larson’s cells, but they were Henrietta Lacks Cells. Since the family of Henrietta never got the recognition they deserved and never made any money off of her cells, they never got the justice they deserved.

The immortal life of Henrietta is a book in which Skloot, the author talks about the perspectives of the medical history in a black woman with cancer, which provided studies that have helped millions of people with diseases by providing studies and medications for their illnesses. The author seems to mainly focus on raising moral issues that occurred during that time. It is a time in the 1950s when a woman named Henrietta Lacks, gets “treatment” at Johns Hopkins Hospital the only known hospital that would provide treatment and care for African American patients. Henrietta went in search of a treatment for her aggressive form of cervical cancer. To begin, a moral issue arose while she was on the operating table Dr. Gey took a sample of her cancerous cervical tissue without Henrietta’s consent or knowledge. Dr. Gey was a doctor who did studies particularly for cancer in an attempt to create an immortal line of human cells that would eventually lead to a cure for cancer. Less than a year after Henrietta’s diagnosis, Henrietta passed away at age thirty-one. Henrietta’s cells were the first to ever be lab tested and were still growing strongly. Her family in fact, had no idea that a part of her was still alive at John Hopkins Hospital and eventually in hospitals all over. Henrietta’s son in an interview even mentioned that because their mother was Blacks she was not recognized by people. He said it was practically impossible for a

“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.