The Untold Story of Henrietta Lacks Essay

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.

In 1951, the first immortal cell line was created by a doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital using tissue samples taken from a young, black woman named Henrietta Lacks. Her cells would come to be known as HeLa cells, and for a very long time, the owner of these cells was a mystery; even her family did not know about them. For years to come, her cells would be used in many important medical and scientific advancements. Over that time, HeLa cells would prove to be instrumental in developing a polio vaccine, gene mapping, and in vitro fertilization. They would even be sent to space to see how cells would react in zero gravity.

Henrietta Lacks died never knowing the impact her life would have on the world of medicine. A poor, black woman living in Baltimore, Maryland in the 1950s, Henrietta was diagnosed with cervical cancer and died only nine short months after her diagnosis at the age of thirty-one. The mother of five children, Henrietta most likely died thinking her family would be her legacy. Little did she know her doctor at John Hopkins hospital, George Gey, had taken some of her cells before she died. With Henrietta’s cells, Dr. Gey was finally able to achieve a goal he had been working toward for decades – creating the first line of immortal cells (Freeman). These cells have been used for countless scientific research and have solidified Henrietta Lacks’ place

In the prologue of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” the author Rebecca Skloot wrote “I’ve tried to imagine how she’d feel knowing that her cells went up in the first space mission to see what would happen to human cells in zero gravity, or that they helped with some of the most important advances in medicine: the polio vaccine, chemotherapy, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization” (Skloot 2). Henrietta’s

Finding discoveries that would greatly benefit medicine have always been difficult to achieve in cancer research. Though, everything changed on February 1, 1951, when Howard Jones discovered that Henrietta Lacks had cervical cancer. When George Gey heard of this, he took samples from Henrietta Lacks’ tumor, and found something that changed for future medical research. George Gey had noticed that Henrietta Lacks’ cancer cells was the first human cell line that could be consistently passaged. The cells were later called HeLa cells, which were named after Henrietta Lacks. Even though scientists greatly benefited from it, Henrietta Lacks, nor her family profited from it.

First, Dr. Gey decided to take Henrietta Lacks’ (who had cervical cancer) cells without informing her and then sent them to be researched. Henrietta’s cells then became one of the biggest discoveries and

n this unit, students will demonstrate their understanding of the cell cycle and mitosis, gathering evidence to support explanations for appropriate cell function and reproduction. Students will first compare normal and cancer cells in different stages of mitosis using a virtual lab. Students will then read portions of the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks in order to gather evidence about a specific type of cancer. They will then share more information on causes and risks for various forms of cancer – gathered from research and from an interview of a person impacted by cancer – with their classmates. Finally, students will use this information to develop an explanation, with evidence, for why certain types of cancer are more prevalent

This is a book that tells a story of an African-American woman and the Scientific journey of her cells, it also goes in depth about how her daughter came to find out about her immortal cells. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is divided into three layers and each part discusses different event that happened during the course of Henrietta’s life, death, and immortality. If the story was written in a chronological order would it had made it easier or harder to understand the more important things?

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks focuses on many issues that Henrietta and her family have faced over the years resulting from the discovery of HeLa cells. One such issue that was recurrently present was the ethical issue of informed consent, or the lack of it, in the Lacks’ case. In the beginning when Henrietta was first being treated with radium to kill her cancerous tumor, her primary doctor, Dr. TeLinde, took a sample of the tissue and sent it to Dr. Gey, head of tissue

The Story of Henrietta Lacks is one of racism, poverty, science, faith, family, and bioethics. The story follows Rebecca Skloot’s journey as she learns about Henrietta’s story. Eventually, when she comes into contact with Henrietta’s family, Rebecca seems to know more about Henrietta’s cells contribution to science than the Lacks family does. Henrietta’s family, mainly her daughter Deborah, tells Rebecca about how the entire family is traumatized by reporters and how they learned horrifying things about their mother that the science community never cared to tell them. To me, this is the issue that stands out the most in the entire story: bioethics. While reading, there seems to be a moment, or even several, in each chapter that make you pause and think: how could anyone think that is okay?

Skloot explains the many purposes of HeLa cells and their impact on the scientific field of knowledge: “ Her cells were part of research into genes that cause cancer and those that suppress it; they helped develop drugs for treating herpes, leukemia, influenza, hemophilia, and Parkinson’s disease” (Skloot 4). Skloot’s use of inductive reasoning left behind sensations of a person who felt overwhelmed at the many uses of HeLa cells. Individuals have seen the vast quantities of developments that came from one vial of HeLa cells. Indeed the listing of many treatments educated the reader of the many developments, which came about because of He La cells. Furthermore, without the new discoveries, humans may not have obtained the ability to continue with studies, for the ill would have perished. Baruch Blumb found a cure for a disease though as undefeatable: “With the help of Slavin’s serum, Blumberg eventually uncovered the link between hepatitis B vaccine, saving millions of lives” (Skloot 203). Skloot’s appeal based on logic shined the light on how many lives became changed from just one discovery. The factual statistics evoked a cognitive, rational response to the mass number of lives saved form the hepatitis B vaccine. Young people of modern times could hold the capacity to save more lives with scientific experiments. If the hepatitis B vaccine ceased to exist, then many would have

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.

Many people take an advantage from this invention. They used HeLa cells to find a new innovation in science and received a lot of money from using HeLa cells. On the other hand,

Chapter 18 discusses the strangest hybrid between 1960 and 1966 in the same field of medical practice. Skloot explains the exotic effects of HeLa cells during the time under study. The healthy human cells usually divide in space as HeLa grows stronger in space. However, cells put in culture labs on earth either die or become cancerous (Skloot). Giving a schmear to a person’s arm would make the wing behave differently and produce different by-products. Medical professionals never understood the implication of such results of the test on people’s cell cultures. However, it was understandable that human cells affect gene regulation, which scientists posit to have the potential for gene

Before the HeLa cell line, scientists struggled to keep human cells alive for more than a couple days, which was necessary for their research of how human cells function, disease develop, and testing vaccines and treatments. In 1951, the HeLa cell was discovered by Dr. George Gey, a scientist at John Hopkins University, which proved to be an immortal cell line that has the ability to regenerate and create endless copies of the original cells. Unlike other cells that tend to die after about 50 divisions the HeLa cells have the ability to continuously keep growing. Dr.Gey had been searching to find an immortal cell line, when he came across the tumors of a patient with cervical cancer named Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks was a black woman from