ipl-logo

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

577 Words3 Pages

Sahra Hernandez EnglishIV August 2,2017 Ms.Willks

"Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality" - Emily Dickinson

The immortal life of Henrietta lacks by Rebecca Skloot was both brilliant and eye opening. As I read the book many main ideas were developed . I could have written about the extreme racism in the story or …show more content…

She took care of herself, cooked ,cleaned took care of the children, and loved to dance. She was married to her cousin David (day) Lacks . They had five children together the oldest born when Henrietta was just 14 on a tobacco farm where she was raised by her grandfather . On January 29,1951 Henrietta went to Hopkins Hospital after feeling a "knot" near her abdominal. She was pregnant by her 5th child. after the birth of her child she could still feel something there so she went back to Hopkins where she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. There was a tumor on her abdominal. Without consent Dr.Hopkins scraped off some of the tumor and her healthy muscle . Dr.Hopkins later sent it to Dr.Gey a cell cultist who cultured Henrietta's cells which he named HeLa . Henrietta was then treated with radiation and sent on her way without knowing about what they took. Henrietta at the age of 31 died on October 4 ,1951 . Henrietta's family grieved her death without knowing about her cells. Mr.Lacks went to visit his wife's body when some doctors asked to do an autopsy on her Mr.Lacks agreed being told it would benefit his children. When they did the autopsy they took parts of Henrietta disregarding Mr.Lacks request to not take anything from her. Meanwhile Mr. Gey was giving away HeLa cells like candy to anyone who asked scientist or

Show More
Related
917 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More
391 Words | 2 Pages

Sasha Amos 07/27/2017 Rebecca Skloot tells a story on Loretta Pleasant also known as Henrietta Lacks, a black woman who had cervical cancer. Without her consent, her doctors took her cells and used them to create HeLa. The Lacks family had no knowledge of what Henrietta’s cells had done.

Read More
611 Words | 3 Pages

HeLa cells were taken from Henrietta unbeknownst to her by George Gey, a cell biologist at Johns Hopkins hospital, when she went in for a biopsy of the tumor growing inside of her. Today, those cells have been crucial in the development of the polio vaccine, aided scientists in learning more about the secrets of cancer, helped in cloning and gene mapping, and have ultimately, been sold by the billions. Even still, Henrietta was buried in an unmarked grave.

Read More
1809 Words | 8 Pages

The HeLa cells not only survived, they grew intensely and kept right on growing as much as their given space would allow. It seemed like the cells would never stop growing, thus came the label of the immortal cells (Skloot, 2010). HeLa cells became a very important part of scientific research, and Henrietta’s name became well-known among Gey’s colleagues. On November 2, 1953, the real name behind the HeLa cells was leaked by the press, but they got it wrong, Henrietta Lakes was reported as the source of the cells in the Minneapolis Star. Gey and Dr. TeLinde, the cervical cancer specialist at John Hopkins, decided to allow their story about Henrietta to be told in a more accurate account, but they wanted to withhold her name.

Read More
613 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
1145 Words | 5 Pages

During treatment, two samples were taken from Henrietta’s cervix, one healthy and one cancerous, without her knowledge. For the final months of her life, Henrietta remained in the hospital until her death on October 4, 1951. Cancer had spread throughout her entire

Read More
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.

Read More
717 Words | 3 Pages

Henrietta and David would have three more children David “Sonny”, Deborah, Joseph. Elsie was born with what they diagnosed as idiocy but it was truly epilepsy and for that, she was put into a "negro" insane hospital. This crushed poor Henrietta and started her downward spiral that would, unfortunately, end in her untimely

Read More
215 Words | 1 Pages

The women name is Henrietta Lacks, a poor and uneducated women and a mother of four kids. She died, in 1951; soon after her doctor discover the cancer in her body, but her cells stayed immortal until

Read More
702 Words | 3 Pages

Henrietta later had 3 more children by the names of David jr., Deborah, and Joseph. On August 1st, 1951 Henrietta Lacks was experiencing a sharp knot in her abdomen so her husband decided to take her to John Hopkins hospital to figure out what was going on, little did they know that this little visit would not only change their lives but change the lives of people all around the world. After the doctors inspected her abdomen they quickly came to the conclusion that she had cervical cancer. Subsequently, the doctors conducted radiation tests and took two cervical cell samples without her knowledge.

Read More
956 Words | 4 Pages

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is at once a biography, a work of science journalism, and a book about the interconnected topics of ethics, justice, and racism. Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman who died from cervical cancer in 1951, was the source of the so-called HeLa cell line, which is “omnipresent” (Skloot, 2010, p. 24) in modern science. The HeLa cell line was derived from Henrietta Lacks’ cancerous tumor, which, against the wishes of Henrietta’s family was taken from her corpse and has been used for prolific and lucrative medical research for over seven decades (Skloot, 2010). Skloot (2010) described The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks as “a biography of both the cells and the woman they came from—someone’s daughter, wife, and mother” (pp. 25-26). While the HeLa cells are ubiquitous in research, the woman from whom they came is, at best, a footnote in biological or medical textbooks.

Read More
556 Words | 3 Pages

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a book that includes her biography, then her childhood to her tragic death; the story of her family over various decades; Skloot’s research and her relationship with the Lacks family, especially Deborah; and the story of the HeLa cells. Henrietta Lacks was known by scientists as HeLa was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951, and then became one of the most important tools in medicine. They were necessary for the development of the polio vaccine, cloning, and much more scientific developments. A doctor at Johns Hopkins took a piece of her tumor without her consent and then sent it down to scientists who been trying to grow tissues in culture for decades. Henrietta's

Read More
656 Words | 3 Pages

Is it right for one's life to be manipulated for the use of scientific research or is it just a evasion on the person's privacy. Henrietta Lacks was a African American with cells that intrigued many people, she was diagnosed with cancer leaving her to be cared for at her local hospital, where she would later die due to the extremity of the illness. While at the hospital she was unaware that the doctors there were experimenting on her taking cell samples from her body, to help find a resolution to multiple diseases. The people who examined Henrietta manipulated her and the rest of her family to gain information on her cellular structure to be ahead of others looking to achieve the same objective. Henrietta Lacks cells should have never been evaluated because it's an evasion of her freedom, a danger to her personal health, and cause conflicts.

Read More
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.

Read More
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.

Read More

More about The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

Related Topics

Open Document