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Henrietta Lacks Book Review

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During my University 111 class, I was given the opportunity to read the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This read was connected to the most important medical breakthrough of the 20th century that changed the face of scientific research. This was the discovery of the numerous uses of cancerous cervical cells from a colored woman named Henrietta Lacks, to science she was HeLa. Her cells aided in the understanding of the development of AIDS/HIV treatment, the development of the polio vaccine, understanding the nutritional needs of cells, and stronger requirements of patient consent laws. To better understand the reading, the class was assigned a project that would allow us to make societal connections. Specifically, my group was assigned to …show more content…

Lifestyle and environmental factors have been closely analyzed for any links that may increase breast cancer risk. During research, it has been found that newer lab tests that are more sensitive, can detect cancer cells that maybe have broken away from the tumor in order to help predict the recurrence of the …show more content…

Lastly, vitamin D deficiency has been linked to the recurrence of breast cancer in other parts of a woman 's body. Advancements in prostate cancer include new research in gene changes that will help understand how the cancer develops. Some hereditary genes that have specific components of the DNA have been found to actually increase the risk of cancer in men. Many scientists have discovered that substances in some foods aid in lowering the risk of contracting the cancer. Lastly, a new treatment made is high intensity focused ultrasound or HIFU, which is used to kill cancer cells in early stages by using high focus ultrasonic

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727 Words | 3 Pages

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a book written by Rebecca Skloot. Chapter 1 begins shortly after Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah, and her son, Joe, were born. After those two were born, she then began to experience vaginal bleeding at the wrong time of the month. Feeling like something was wrong, Henrietta rushed to the doctor. She only went to see the doctor “If she felt she had no other choice”.

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917 Words | 4 Pages

Henrietta Lacks Timeline 1920’s August 5 1920-Henrietta Lacks is born in Roanoke, Virginia with the name Loretta Pleasant 1924-Henrietta’s mother Eliza Lacks Pleasant dies giving birth Henrietta went to go live with her grandfather, Tommy Lacks and her cousins Joe and Day on a tobacco farm 1930’s 1934-Henrietta becomes pregnant with her cousin Day’s child Lawrence and later a daughter Elsie who was mentally challenged 1940’s 1940 -Fred buys a bus ticket to travel up north to join his other cousins working at a steel mill outside of baltimore called turner station April 20 1941-Henrietta and Day get married December 1941-Japan bombs pearl Harbor which bring more demand from Turner Station Henrietta cousin Fred returns successfully from

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1033 Words | 5 Pages

Henrietta Lacks Honor Essay “The reason Henrietta's cells were so precious was because they allowed scientists to perform experiments that would have been impossible with a living human. They cut HeLa cells apart and exposed them to endless toxins, radiation, and infection. They bombarded them with drugs, hoping to find one that would kill malignant cells without destroying normal ones.” (58)”Throughout the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” there are many examples of how the HeLa cell of Henrietta Lacks provided cellular information and examples that helped mold many cellular discoveries and experiments.

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1514 Words | 7 Pages

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot I. Meta Thesis Henrietta Lacks’s family should have been immediately informed of the HeLa cells’ existence and been compensated for the use of them and the industry they created; the moral and ethical principals of consent and privacy, medically, have changed since the cells were stolen in 1951, and while neither is perfect, both have improved greatly. II. Text Excerpts with Disscussion that Supports Meta Thesis 1. Dr. Gey had good intentions regarding Henrietta Lacks’s privacy, so when HeLa had spread across the worldand people wanted to know the woman behind the cells’ name, he told no one.

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702 Words | 3 Pages

Henrietta Lacks was born as Loretta Pleasants on August 1st, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia, She lived with her mother for 4 years until her mother died in 1924 for unknown reasons. After the death, she moved to her grandfather log cabin, which was a former slave quarter for their ancestors. There she met her cousin David “Day” Lacks. In 1935, the two cousins had a child, his name was Lawrence. A few years later they had another child by the name of Elise.

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903 Words | 4 Pages

The book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot and examines the life of Henrietta Lacks and her peculiar situation with her mysterious cells. This paper will focus on chapter two in the novel and how it becomes the most important part of the book when it comes to understanding Henrietta’s life story. Chapter two is called “Clover (1920-1942)”, the chapter itself dissects the early life of Henrietta and the challenges she had growing up. In this chapter, it goes over the gender, economic, and racial obstacles that greatly impacted her. It is important to understand the socio-economic conditions that led Henrietta to be treated less than human.

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239 Words | 1 Pages

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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936 Words | 4 Pages

2015 Read and Response: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Throughout the Lacks’ family history there has been nothing more but absence of information and deceitfulness. The prolonged journey of finding out who exactly Deborah’s mother was and how she changed science was all but easy. One of the most common messages throughout the book was the conflict between individual rights and scientific exploration from high, authoritative figures such as scientists, doctors and the research community.

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663 Words | 3 Pages

Despite the wrongdoings Henrietta Lacks was put through her cells did a lot to help advance science. Her cells helped develop different types of vaccines, which such as her daughter faced. A lot of good and bad came out of Henrietta’s

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1020 Words | 5 Pages

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of Henrietta, an African-American woman whose cells were used to create the first immortal human cell line. Told through the eyes of her daughter, Deborah Lacks, aided by journalist Rebecca Skloot. Deborah wanted to learn about her mother, and to understand how the unauthorized harvesting of Lacks cancerous cells in 1951 led to unprecedented medical breakthroughs, changing countless lives and the face of medicine forever. It is a story of medical arrogance and triumph, race, poverty and deep friendship between the unlikeliest people. There had been many books published about Henrietta’s cells, but nothing about Henrietta’s personality, experiences, feeling, life style etc.

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743 Words | 3 Pages

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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989 Words | 4 Pages

Bushra Pirzada Professor Swann Engh-302 October 4th 2015 Rhetorical Analysis: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks written by Rebecca Skloot tells the story of a woman named Henrietta Lacks who has her cervical cancer. It further goes to tell the audience how Henrietta altered medicine unknowingly. Henrietta Lacks was initially diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951; however, the doctors at John Hopkins took sample tissues from her cervix without her permission. The sample tissues taken from Henrietta’s cervix were used to conduct scientific research as well as to develop vaccines in the suture.

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440 Words | 2 Pages

Rebecca Skloot develops the idea that poverty comes with many difficult situations, in the book, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks". True, Henrietta and her family were poor, could barely afford their medical bills, and they didn 't get the extended care that they deserved. You will learn how being poor can change your life and what is done with it . In the book, Henrietta 's daughter, Deborah, has many medical problems and she has to spend all her money on not even all her medicine.

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919 Words | 4 Pages

An essential part of modern society relied on trust, especially the trust of doctors and scientists. People had the right to make an informed decision about their bodies and body parts. People had a right to their body parts, both attached and cell samples collected by doctors. The actions that the medical professions made will continue to affect future generations in both positive and negative ways. In the contemporary biographical novel, the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot used logical opinions to argue about the importance of consent to reveal the lack of morality from those in the medical field which continues to persist today.

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1727 Words | 7 Pages

Family, for most people, is defined as a sort of safe haven for people to go to. For others, families may be fragmented, split, or may have wrong ideals as a whole. Broken families, while they may have a long lasting effect on the spouses, can also have a detrimental, long-lasting effect on the children of these marriages which can lead to certain mental illnesses. For example, in the story of the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Deborah faces the emotional effects of her mother’s death. Other stories such as “A Rose for Emily”, show how Emily 's fathers parenting techniques and a lack of a mother figure burdened her future.

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