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The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

1150 Words5 Pages

Robertson Davies, a Canadian novelist, once wrote, “The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.” We have the power to decipher between the images before us and convince ourselves that what we are seeing is truly what we make it out to be. In Rebecca Skloot’s novel, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Skloot tells the story of a woman named Henrietta Lacks with immortal cells. Henrietta’s cells were used for science and stirred up turbulent debates between scientists, doctors, politicians, civilians, and others. The ethical backing to the research and testing done with HeLa cells, the abbreviation for Henrietta’s immortal cells, was, and in some ways still is, the main topic concerning Henrietta’s cells. There are two main points …show more content…

Intrigued by the story of the immortal cells, she sought out for more information on the woman behind the cells. After class, she went to her teacher and asked if he knew more about Henrietta but all he knew was her name (4). That is the event that started Skloot on her mission of justice for Henrietta Lacks. Since the, Skloot has done over a decade of research for her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. She talked to as many, if not all, living family members of Henrietta and she interviewed every doctor, scientist, journalist, and more possible. Skloot saw the importance of honoring who Henrietta was as a person not just wats he did for science. Skloot knew that the word needed to see who Henrietta was, not only as the woman behind the immortal cells, but a woman who impacted the lives of many around her: she said, “for me, its writing a book and telling people about this story.” Rebecca Skloot is stil pursing the hope of people knowing the backstory of Henrietta and how she made a difference in the world before her cells were even …show more content…

Some family members still want to sue the people gaining money from HeLa, but others simply want people to see who Henrietta was (327-328). Deborah, Henrietta’s daughter, told Skloot, “Like I’m always telling my brothers, if you gonna go into history, you can’t do it with a hate attitude. You got to remember, times was different. (276)” So many advances have been made in science and medicine that the majority of people on the Earth have been affected by HeLa cells at least on time in their lives. Hopefully one day, when kids are taught in their biology classes about HeLa cells, they also learn about the importance in the history of the woman behind the

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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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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a novel written by Rebecca Skloot, a science reporter, depicting the lives of Henrietta Lacks’s family and their connection between them and Henrietta’s famous cancer cells “HeLa Cells”. Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951 and was treated with radium and radiation therapy. During her treatment process, the tumor and other cancerous tissue that was removed from her body was sent George Gey's lab at Hopkins to be grown in test tubes all without Lacks’s consent or knowledge. The cells were successfully able to divide and give the scientific community a good supply of human cancer cells to experiment on. The Lacks’s family was never informed about the cells even when there were amazing

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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.

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The polio vaccine, the revolutionary steps regarding cancer research, and even obtaining the ability to put a man on the moon, were some of the greatest achievements of the 20th century. All these achievements were thanks to HeLa cells. Cancerous cells from Helen Lane. Or so that is all we knew of the origins of the cells before the early 70’s. The massive debate and controversy over Henrietta Lacks cells, their ownership, and their rights added more conflict and more worries to the mountain of distress and tensions during the Cold War.

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Without these cells we would not have been able to successfully or humanly learn many of the things that we know now. These cells helped teach us about diseases, how to cure/treat them, and humans as a whole. These cells provided the human genetic material we needed in order to make discoveries without harming or testing on people. Although the way these cells were cultured in the beginning was very inhumane they stopped many more dangerous or inhumane acts from being committed in the name of research. HeLa cells were the base of many discoveries that shaped our modern science and

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Henrietta’s cells became the first to manage to live outside of the body in a culture created by Margaret, and these cells are still growing to this day. They have been packaged, shipped and sold countless times. The HeLa cells have made the biggest contribution to human kind in regards of medical research on cancer, polio, and many more viruses. There is a report of the insane experiments done to these cells, and since they are not a person, ethical limitations are nonexistent. HeLa opened the gates to

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It serves as a reminder of the importance of ethical considerations in scientific research as well as the humanity behind medical advancements. Movie: "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" is a movie that depicts the story of a woman who unwittingly became one of the most important contributors to modern medical research. Henrietta Lacks was a poor African American woman who was diagnosed with cervical cancer in the early 1950s. During her treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, doctors collected a sample of her cancer cells without her knowledge or consent.

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Skloot spent years researching Henrietta Lacks, and every source had the same singular fact: Henrietta was the woman behind the HeLa cells. Skloot was determined to fix this by finding the true story and sharing it with the world, to honor Henrietta. Skloot worked tirelessly to make sure her book was filled only with truths, and checked all of her sources meticulously. 3. Throught the book, there are hundreds quotes from primary sources including but not limited to, the Lackses, colleagues of Dr. Gey (the founder of HeLa cells), and Henrietta’s medical records.

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One of the ironies explored in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is the dichotomy between the vast value of the HeLa cell line—which has been used in the development of the polio vaccine, nuclear bomb testing, the

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Maybe figure out how to duplicate the cells and use it for other drugs that can help people heal better. All through this research and testing Henrietta was left in the dark she didn’t even know that the doctors removed a piece of her cervix for research purposes. She didn’t even receive credit for her cells until much much later. No one knew about the HeLa cells except for the doctors because they were trying to keep it a secret so their project wouldn’t get shutdown by not informing the patient that they’re using their cells. Some would say that the doctors did the right thing and kept the identity of the cells disclosed because later on it led to saving so many lives.

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Devon Moore Professor Dunbar English 111 19 September 2017 Title Cells that are known as HeLa are a line of immortal human cells that were developed from an African American woman in the 1950’s. They continue to be very well-known to the world of science today as they are still used. The HeLa cells are known for contributing to a lot of medical advancements. Scientists have now converted these cells into drugs to help create many different treatments for various cancers and diseases.

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Throughout the Rebecca Skloot’s book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, she described her investigation into the life of Henrietta Lacks, her immortal cell line, the ethical violations surrounding her case, as well as the major contributions to modern medicine and research her case provided. During the time of Henrietta’s treatment, both medical and research ethics were quite different; many values such as autonomy, justice, and beneficence were not as enforced, and were applied differently throughout different institutions and individuals of different demographics. Though investigating her case and other important cases surrounding the use of HeLa cells, Skloot acknowledges the unethical circumstances which filled Henrietta’s case and

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In 1951, at the age of 31 Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Henrietta was under treatment at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where cells from her malignant tumor were removed. Neither Henrietta nor any of her family members knew about the tissue sample and nor did the Hopkins ever informed them of the situation. Unfortunately after Henrietta’s radiation treatment, her condition continued to worsen and soon she lost her battle to cancer on octomber 4th 1951. Henriettas cells left the Hopkins what they discovered to be known to be the first immortal human cell line.

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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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Scientists and doctors made great discoveries with the HeLa cells of Henrietta Lacks. The family of Henrietta Lacks had to live with the aftermath of decisions made by doctors and

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