ipl-logo

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

585 Words3 Pages

Within the novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks written by Rebecca Skloot, Lacks and her family face many adversities. One adversity major mistreatment of Henrietta is while she's in the care of Dr. Gey. During her struggles Dr. Gey was removing tissue samples without informing Lacks his full intentions which was very wrong, but the arrival of Henrietta's cells proved to be vital in the advancement of the Science and medical fields. A sudden boom of new scientific research, and medical breakthroughs were now within in reach. One example of a major solution solved by HeLa cells was the expense of culturing cells, before Scientist would have to kill monkeys to obtain cells in order to run neutralization tests, this proved to be costly and …show more content…

As soon as Gey realized what he had discovered he ordered a large factory to be built to mass produce HeLa cells, its main purpose was to discover a cure for Polio (Skloot, Pg. 93), but not only did it provide aid in the medical world, but companies such as cosmetic corporations could test the effects of their makeup and other cosmetics on cell health (Skloot, Pg. 102). The possibilities of research with HeLa cell were endless, anything from the research on atomic radiations effect on cells and how to reverse the damage, to the discovery of cells being able to live on after the extraction of their nucleus, and even the vast amount of studies of chemotherapy drugs, hormones, vitamins, and environmental stress proved the importance of HeLa cells in modern research (Skloot, Pg. 102). For the first time ever, scientists were able to properly identify the correct number of chromosomes and map them out, this further lead to the ability of being able to diagnose diseases where individuals had an excess or lack of chromosomes such as Trisomy 21 or Klinefelter syndrome (Skloot, Pg. 100). The science world had finally found a way to overcome the expense and strenuous procedures to obtain cell subjects, scientist could test the effect of gravity, the pressure of deep sea diving by spinning the cells in a centrifuge (Skloot,

Show More
Related

Henrietta Lacks: Her Cells In The 1950's And Today

734 Words | 3 Pages

The biggest challenge was keeping the cells from contamination, George’s wife was a surgical nurse which was very helpful in keeping things sterile("Henrietta Lacks, HeLa cells, and cell culture contamination."). His next challenge was where to put them to grow he hand blew his test tubes, he also created a machine that kept the fluid at a constant but subtle speed at one turn per hour("George Otto Gey - Cancer Research." ). This roller tube technique is still used today. Since her cells are immortal scientist had more time to experiment on them and less time keeping them alive. HeLa’s cells launched a multimillion dollar industry, yet her family never saw any profits.

Read More

The Hela Cells: The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

1053 Words | 5 Pages

Not to mention times were different when it came to handling human rights. For example, as mentioned in the book, “...the Nuremberg Code and the American Medical Association Code of ethics, which clearly said that doctors should keep patient information confidential, the Hippocratic Oath wasn’t law,” meaning many doctors could do as they pleased when testing patients. It wasn’t standard practice to inform patients that their information was being used in medical research. As a result of this, the HeLa cells were discovered and have been used for good. For example, they are responsible for helping advance the polio vaccine, chemotherapy, cloning, gene mapping, and much more.

Read More

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

586 Words | 3 Pages

In the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot goes on a lengthy journey in order to uncover the past of one of the greatest advances in medical history. Through the process she discovered that there was more to the story than just one woman, and this would lead her on an international adventure to discover the truth. Throughout the book many issues are present, many of them are quite severe, these issues include abuse and racial issues. To begin, there are multiple forms of abuse that are present in the book, and these include types of abuse such as physical, emotional, sexual and even abuse of power. Deborah Lacks Was abused at a young age by a woman named Ethel.

Read More

Henrietta Lacks Discussion Questions

700 Words | 3 Pages

Participation Portfolio 1 Asst 3: Henrietta Lacks Discussion Questions   Please answers each of the following questions, and be prepared to discuss in class   1. Please outline the history of Henrietta Lacks 's tissue cells. Who did what with the cells, when, where and for what purpose? Who benefited, scientifically, medically, and monetarily?

Read More

The Backtory Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

689 Words | 3 Pages

An example from the book of applied research is injecting these malignant cells into the arms of sick and healthy patients (Skloot, 2010). Another reason for the use of her cells is because the growth of living cells has been unsuccessful prior to receiving the HeLa cells. It could be the lack of mitosis happening in the cell, and the cells have not been able to reproduce, and create copies of themselves. This is another reason, why the doctors have been keeping a close observation of Henrietta’s children, even making up excuses to collect their blood, and keeping everything a secret. This is important to research because you can have a higher risk of getting a disease through your family’s genes.

Read More

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Essay

956 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

380 Words | 2 Pages

What makes us trust another human being? Even though there are many who are corrupt, trustworthy individuals have the ability to persuade us of their credibility. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a nonfiction book, Rebecca Skloot tells us an almost unbelievable story in a very believable way. Rebecca Skloot shows extreme patience with Deborah. As she continues to conduct research on the Lacks family, it is not uncommon for Deborah to act extremely irrationally.

Read More

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

419 Words | 2 Pages

In her nonfiction piece The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot explores the issue of patient compensation. Her intertwining of court cases, expert opinions from the medical community and examples like Ted Slavin. Skloot advocates for both ethical practice and scientific advancement in the medical field. Fully inform the patient this includes letting the patient know if they have unique tissues or what they are studying or testing for in the tissues. Have the patient sign a consent form when they are lucid.

Read More

Henrietta Lacks Research Papers

704 Words | 3 Pages

These cells have helped prevent the deaths of 650,000 people and 13 million cases of paralysis since the 1980’s (Bhavsar). “All of this would not have been possible if it weren’t for Henrietta Lack’s immortal life” (Bhavsar). HeLa cells helped make the polio vaccine possible with their ability to be tested on and studied. As well as its ability to be multiplied continuously for multiple trials of an

Read More

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

1039 Words | 5 Pages

Lacks’ cells were special, in that they would never die and always reproduce, creating medical miracles! Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks provides many facts about her cells

Read More

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

631 Words | 3 Pages

The Problems African Americans Faced The racial segergation and persecution that African American’s faced were truly unforgetable. With the complete abolishment of slavery colored people still face racial persucation all through out the 1900’s. The family that was hugly impacted were the Lacks. “In The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks”, the main role in the book was Henrietta the mother of five kids who was diagnosed with cervical cancer at the time. The docters did many test’s on Henrietta which are now illigal to proceed on someone.

Read More

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

951 Words | 4 Pages

In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, starts out as just the story of how Henrietta lived. Throughout the novel, the author lists everything that the Lacks family went through in life. Rebecca Skloot made sure o include in the novel the exact details that the family experienced as well as what Henrietta herself experienced. Rebecca was sure to tell the story on Henrietta Lacks as the author just wanted to know more about Henrietta. In order for the author to do that she had to do her research to get all the information.

Read More

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

747 Words | 3 Pages

Later their medical records were released to the press and published without consent,” Skloot wrote. Initially, the Lacks family had no idea that Henrietta’s cells were used in groundbreaking accomplishments. Adding salt to the wound, the family was never, even poorly, compensated from a multibillion dollar profit earned by cell line companies who made use of Gey’s HeLa cells. Moreover, even the family of the “most important woman” considered by the research community did not even have the chance to access treatments that were developed using HeLa cells.

Read More

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

685 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the process of reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, there are a great deal of recurring themes that run central to the story’s plot. However, the theme of spirituality, which is often intertwined with the beliefs of the Lacks family, is one that captures the reader’s attention starting as early as the prologue. Even the author, Rebecca Skloot, provides a contrast between herself and Henrietta’s youngest daughter, Deborah, to illustrate how one’s beliefs can drastically shape his or her worldview. In terms of this particular story, it is important to take a closer look into how these faith-based beliefs interact with their counterpart of drawing conclusions based on evidence, thus introducing the question “How did level of

Read More

Theme Of The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

738 Words | 3 Pages

It talks about the doctors wanting Henrietta’s relatives blood so they could map the human genome. I wonder what the Hela contamination was. How would her relatives blood samples become relevant to this theory? Also, John Moore had almost the same issue as Henrietta, having his cells taken for research without consent. He had signed a form, but the doctor completely misleads him to what it was for.

Read More

More about The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

Related Topics

Open Document