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Henrietta Lacks Essay

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In Rebecca Skloot’s compelling narrative, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Skloot begins the novel with a quote by 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 sources of anguish, and with some measure of triumph.” The quote gives the reader a reason to explore the unknown life of Henrietta Lacks. Throughout the book, Skloot delves into the life of Henrietta, a young African-American woman whose cells were taken without her consent. Her cells would later become the only line of immortal cells. Skloot changes the world’s perspective of the Lacks family as abstractions in her novel. From the beginning, Henrietta was disregarded …show more content…

Gey and Dr. TeLinde, doctors at Johns Hopkins, received a letter from Roland H. Berg, a press officer, explaining how he planned to write an article about the woman behind HeLa cells. Dr. Gey replied “I have discussed the matter with Dr. TeLinde, and he has agreed to allow this material to be presented in a popular magazine article. We must, however, withhold the name of the patient” (Skloot 106). Johns Hopkins doctors wanted to withhold Henrietta’s personal life and records, so they gave the public a fake name, Helen Lane. Doctors and other medical professionals didn’t see Henrietta as a person, instead, they saw her as a cell line and her contributions to medical advancements. Not only was Henrietta Lacks an African-American during the 1940s, but she was highly uneducated, immediately she was seen as unworthy. When Dr. Lawrence Wharton Jr., the surgeon on duty, examined her cervix, doctors ignored Henrietta’s right to know her cells were going to be extracted. On page 33, it states “--though no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting samples or asked if she wanted to be a donor-- Wharton picked up a sharp knife and shaved.tissue from Henrietta’s cervix” (33 Skloot). At that moment, Henrietta was no longer seen as a patient, but as a possible medical

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On Henrietta’s deathbed Gey tells her that her cells will make her immortal. The tuskegee institute began giving cells for polio research but soon after began sending cells to any scientist who wanted them The hela cells were used to create many scientific breakthroughs and understanding of cells such as the use of freezing cells for delivery and the standardization of cell culturing Skloot and Deborah 1990 1999 Skloot reaches out to Roland Pattillo after coming across a collection of scientific papers compiled by Pattillo about Henrietta, after she decides she wants to write about

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When removed during her biopsy and then cultured without her permission, her cells began to reproduce rapidly and require more and more culture medium to consume as they grew. They thrived in the lab and they were the first human cells ever in history to do so. Meanwhile, Henrietta, 31, African-American, and a mother of five, continued enduring painful and damaging radiation treatment in the hospital’s “colored only” ward. After Henrietta’s death, her cells, named HeLa after the first two letters of both her names, went on to become a celebrity of virology, benefiting more people than will ever be truly realized. Scientists have grown about 50 million metric tons of her cells, helped sustain and build thousands of careers, and tens of thousands of scientific

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1695 Words | 7 Pages

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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People did not know the truth about HeLa because Hopkins hospital hid the fact that they took living samples of Henrietta’s cells without consent. “-Add quote-“they did it to continue and advance in their research. From HeLa the scientific world was booming with questions. “–Add quote-“they asked questions such as where was HeLa from and who’s the patient was with the cells. Not to mention Hopkins did not release Henrietta name because they did not want people to find out who she really was.

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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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1176 Words | 5 Pages

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211 Words | 1 Pages

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638 Words | 3 Pages

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474 Words | 2 Pages

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Henrietta Lacks Without Her Consent Essay

663 Words | 3 Pages

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1020 Words | 5 Pages

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743 Words | 3 Pages

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989 Words | 4 Pages

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