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Henrietta Lacks Book Report

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A non-fiction book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is about an African American woman who developed cervical cancer. While trying to diagnose her illness Johns Hopkins Hospital, got a sample of her tumor and sent to the culture lab. Inside the lab, George Guy harvests the cancerous cells that began to divide into hundreds of cells that became known as HeLa cells. The book is made up of hundreds of interviews that Rebecca Skloot accomplishes most of these interviews were of the Lacks family. The book picks up in chapter 33 Rebecca Skloot promise Deborah, Henrietta daughter several things one was seeing her mother cells and the other one was to find out what happened to Elsie Lacks, Deborah sister. The two go on a weeklong trip that started at Crownsville in hopes of finding Elise medical records when they arrived at Crownsville Hospital Center.(Skloot 268) They go inside the build and locate the medical records room which was empty no medical records. …show more content…

Skloot asks her if she is ok Deborah said, “This happens all the time,” “I’m fine. I just need some Benadryl” (Skloot 286). Deborah asks Skloot to take a picture of her holding two pictures of Elsie in front of Henrietta tombstone. The two then go to Gladys Lacks house, a small yellow cabin she is Henrietta sister. Deborah tells her that she’s is going to make a web page for her mother to get donations and funds to turn her old home- house into a museum. (Skloot 287)
In chapter 36 the next morning Deborah hives gone down, but she wants to go back to her house and to go see her doctor. Skloot stays behind to talk to Gary Lacks Deborah cousin; he begins to read passages from the bible. He said that lord chose Henrietta, to be immortal and then ask Skloot to read out loud from the bible. After reading some passages from the bible Skloot now understand why her family believes she was chosen to be immortal. (Skloot

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Later that day Deborah becomes upset that Skloot reached for her mom's medical records and leaves saying she doesn't know who to trust The next day Deborah has seemingly forgive Skloot and they go to visit Zakariyya in order to get more information. The three of them visit Christopher Lengauer's lab in order to see the HeLa cells To learn the truth about what happened to Elsie they travelled to Crownsville They learned that she died in an overcrowded facility and lived in abysmal conditions.

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HeLa was an immortal line of cells that led to many scientific discoveries. The book “The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks” has many different points you can view from. The book shows how history changed over time, how being African American and poor gets you no rights to privacy, and most importantly how medicine advanced because of Henrietta’s cells. Henrietta was one of ten children. Her mother died while giving birth in a barn.

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Henrietta Lacks was a poor black tobacco farmer,born in Roanoke, Virginia on August 1 ,1920.Henrietta’s mother died when Henrietta was very young, her dad did not wanted to take care of her and her siblings, so they were sent with different relatives. She grew up with her grandfather. Henrietta died at age of 31 years old of cervical cancer, on October 4, 1951. At the age of twenty-nine she felt a “knot” inside of her. In the year of 1950, she had a full-fledged tumor just three months  after she had felt the knot.

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Henrietta Lacks was a thirty-one year old African American who had five kids and married her cousin David Lacks. Henrietta was diagnosed with cervical cancer, the doctors never informed Mrs. Lacks that her cells were to be tested on. The Lacks family was certainly not advised that Henrietta 's cells were growing at an incredible rate. Because of this, the cancer cells were shipped and bought across the world. The last 8 months of Henrietta’s death became a piece of history nobody would ever want to forget.

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In her work, Skloot reveals Henrietta Lacks to be an African-American woman whose cervical cells were biopsied without her consent. These cells, known as HeLa (a combination of Lacks first and last name), have since been shared among various scientists and researchers and been the framework for ground-breaking research. Unlike other works on Henrietta Lacks, Skloot set out to tell

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Born in Roanoke, Virginia on August 1, 1920, Henrietta Lacks would one day unknowingly be the reason for one of the most important cell lines in medical research. Henrietta Lacks became the source of HeLa cells after her death on October 4, 1951 (aged 31), cells which were the first immortalized cell line in history; immortalized cells are cells that will reproduce indefinitely under specific conditions. While Henrietta’s cells were and continue to be used to treat many illnesses, there was never any consent given from Henrietta herself, or any of her family. To this day, no portion of the billions of dollars made from HeLa cells ever found it’s way to Henrietta’s family. The medical ethics in the 1950’s are very questionable in comparison

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Book: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a fascinating and thought-provoking book that explores the life and legacy of Henrietta Lacks, a woman whose cells are used without her knowledge or consent in groundbreaking medical research. The book was written by journalist Rebecca Skloot, who spent years researching Henrietta's story and interviewing her family members. Skloot does an excellent job of weaving Henrietta's personal history within the broader scientific context of the time, exploring topics such as race, class, and medical ethics.

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Henrietta Lacks was a black tobacco farmer from the south who, in 1950, at the age of 30, she was diagnosed with aggressive cervical cancer. Lacks went to John’s Hopkins medical center for treatment for her cancer. In April of 1951, she underwent surgery to remove the larger tumor on her cervix. Henrietta Lacks, died three days following the surgery. Even though Henrietta Lacks died, her cells from the tumor have lived on and have made a major impact on the biomedical community.

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About 24 years after there mothers death, Henriettas children were finally made aware of their mothers part in medical research. Leaving behind thousands of unanswered

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Racism in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Imagine your mother, sister, wife, or cousin was diagnosed with cervical cancer and you believed the doctors were doing everything in their power to help her. Only later you discovered her cells were used for research without consent and she was not properly informed of the risks of her treatment due to her race. This story happened and is told by Rebecca Skloot in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Skloot use of narrative and her writing style enhances the understanding of the story. Henrietta Lacks was a young black woman who was diagnosed with cervical cancer at John Hopkins Hospital.

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