Essay on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Life chapter summaries

A researcher George Gey was given the cells of Henrietta’s tumor for research. George Gey discovered that Henrietta’s cells were unique and did something by no means seen before; they could be kept alive and grow. Before Henrietta’s cells, cultured cells would only be able to survive a few days. More time was spent on observing and preserving Henrietta’s cells than actually using them for research. It was

When the cells finally began growing in Gey’s lab it was seen as a huge advance in the world of science, seeing as no one had succeeded beforehand, this was a great accomplishment on his part. However, Henrietta was never told of this or how important her cells had become, she simply continued living without knowing that the cancerous cells inside her were continuing to grow despite receiving “treatment” from the doctors. Her only treatment was a small patch of radiation sewn directly into her cervix on the area where the tumor had appeared, after some tests showed that the tumor had disappeared she continued with her normal life of farming, raising her children, and enjoying life. Henrietta never complained about any side effects of the radiation, however, it eventually would make her infertile and cause her skin on her torso to turn black.

George get was one of the important characters. He was the Johns Hopkins scientist who first cultivated and distributed HeLa cells. Although there was a lot of demand for the cells, he didn’t make people pay for them, so he didn’t have profit. All he wanted was the scientific community to benefit from being aback to have these cells to experiment on later, but ironically he dies of cancer later on. Deborah Lacks was one of Henrietta’s Daughters. Henrietta died when she was very young, so she has no memories of who her mother was. Her older sister, Elise Lacks, died at the age of 15. The two events brought Deborah to the curiosity of them. The author of this book and narrator of the story is Rebecca Skloot. She was very curious about HeLa after she heard about them in class and realized her professor didn’t know much about them. Henrietta had a husband, his name is David Lacks. When Henrietta died, HeLa research was the top thing! Researchers were looking for her family to get blood cells to test for cancer. David gave them cells, but at the time he did not know that the researchers were using them to help reduce the contamination of HeLa cells into several cultures, and develop reasons to why her cells are

Skloot’s initial interest in Henrietta was born out of sheer curiosity, but turned into a genuine want to help Deborah know her mother and understand what happened to her. Skloot’s genuine care for people can be insinuated in her description of the time she spent with Deborah, as she says, “Each time I visited, we’d walk the Baltimore Harbor, ride boats, read science books together, and talk about her mother’s cells” (Skloot 251). The book took a backseat to helping Deborah. She wasn’t concerned with publishing her book quickly and making money quickly; she truly wanted to help Deborah understand what happened to her mother. She handled Deborah’s erratic bouts of paranoia with grace, patiently and calmly waiting for her to come around

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

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a true story of a poor, Southern African-American tobacco farmer who died in 1951 at the very young age of 31 years old from cervical cancer. Little did she know that cells harvested from her tumor, which were obtained without her consent have lived on and on and became one of the most important tools in medicine today. Despite Henrietta’s story being full of legal and ethical issues, the story was one filled with success and anguish. Success for science as her cells served as advancement in medical research and development; yet was sorrowful for Henrietta and her family. This story occurred during a time of segregation in the United States, when Henrietta Lacks believed she

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.

Henrietta was an African American woman who grew up in Clover, Virginia and was raised by her grandfather, Tommy Lacks because her mother died after giving birth to her 10th child. Henrietta worked with her cousin in the family’s tobacco farm, went to school until 6th grade, and had her first child with Day Lacks (her cousin) at the age of 14, and they got married when she was 20 years old and he was 25. After giving birth to her 5th child, Deborah, Henrietta goes

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.

After reading chapter 2, My impression of Henrietta is that she is like any other person of that time. The chapter talks about her

Racism wasn’t far from this case the doctor in Henrietta’s case figured that telling her what they were doing would only confuse her and her family even more so they just figure to not tell her or her family at all. This case started in 1951 and the research on the cells still goes on till the present.

Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Her doctor at Johns Hopkins hospital took her tissues without informing her and grew them. When she died her tissue became HeLa cells which became the key to science research creating vaccines and medications. Race In the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was exploited by the doctors. It was a major issue and the doctors took advantage of their patients to receive what they wanted. It left people like Henrietta and her family uninformed because blacks were forbidden to ask questions.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a very touching book; this book has really helped me take a new perspective on how patients were treated in hospitals in the 1950s. Also the book demonstrates how patients and research has changed drastically from how they are now compared to back when Henrietta’s cells were being used. Unfortunately Henrietta did not know that her cells were being used for research in the hospital labs, since she was unaware they were using her cells there was no way for her family to try to obtain money from the researchers to help them financially. Also, during this time period most people weren’t given the proper knowledge and consent rights to be used as research unlike today’s standards. Therefore, this leads me

This research paper is based on the findings from the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”. What you will read and come to know is nonfiction. I wish I could put the pictures of what I have seen and read together here for you to perhaps get a better understanding. A story based on not Henrietta’s life being that of immortality, but rather cancer cells removed from her body without her knowledge. These were the first cancer cells to reproduce outside of her body. You will come to know about Henrietta, her cancer, her cells, and her immortal life. Perhaps we can all learn to appreciate life in greater means of appreciation after reading and knowing the life and immortal afterlife of Henrietta Lacks. You will learn about a woman, who like us, had a family, and ended up not being able to truly live life to its fullest. Making us all realize just how cancer is and the amazing research that came from being able to reproduce her cells. Not just for cancer but for various other illnesses that plague so many of us. My hope is that you take away from this a better understanding of a time we do not know, for the ups and downs of science and the possibility of immortal life.

Gey found that Henrietta cells were different than the usual cells. It was never happening before when Gey found a cell that grows with mythological intensity in the lab. Usually, every cell will die or survive for a while in the lab. “However, the Henrietta’s cancer cells seemed unstoppable as long as they had food and warmth” (Skloot 65). This was the first immortal human cells that they called HeLa. This name came from the first two letters of the name Henrietta Lacks.