Premium Essay

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

Submitted By
Words 1207
Pages 5
Henrietta Lacks. A poor black women, who didn’t even know she made a giant impact on the medical world. Henrietta's cells were taken from her at the John Hopkins Hospital without her knowledge. They were grown in culture and used for many different things. “Scientists have used HeLa cells to develop the polio vaccine; they have gone into space and have been exposed to nuclear testing and to toxins” (Reference 1) The major problem with this is that it was unethical. The scientists and doctors didn’t care that they were being unethical, because they figured that Henrietta would deny them the right to do so. Another problem is that we would never know; since they never did ask her. By not asking her if they could do so, they caused for controversy to occur later on. People to this day still talk about what happened in 1951 because it was an evolutionary event. …show more content…
I wanted to read this book because I had heard very interesting viewpoints from my science teachers in High School. I had believed that it would show some history to the subject of cells and express how her cells were and are very important to the evolution of them. I had thought that by reading this book it would make me wonder and ask questions as to why and or how the scientists did what they did. All of these

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Lloyd Moody

...One of the key methods to keep your paper attractive to the readers is to add stories that can support your thesis statement. For instance, Lloyd Moody?s story, of a divorced family, mentioned in the paper, ?I have no hope for my parents ever getting back together. I did when I was younger, but eventually, reality hit me, and I have no desire for them anymore.?[footnoteRef:4] Stories help the audience to relate that experience with them. Having a story in the writing is very important, not just because it makes the paper more credible, but also it gives a seance life to your paper. In addition to proving the thesis by gathering statistics, data, or researches done by others, stories are essential to grab the readers feeling. [4: Natnael Tebeje, THE IMPACT OF PARENTAL ABSENCE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN, (Research, Colorado, 2018)...

Words: 1730 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Medicare Fraud: the History, Incidence, Costs and Institutional Remedies

...Professor: Dr. Lloyd L. Cannedy, Ph.D. Book Review of “The Immortal Life of Henriettta Lack” Student: Abraham S Lincoln “Henrietta Lacks, a young black mother of five children, entered the colored ward of The Johns Hopkins Hospital to begin treatment for an extremely aggressive strain of cervical cancer. As she lay on the operating table, a sample of her cancerous cervical tissue was taken without her knowledge or consent and given to Dr. George Gey, the head of tissue research. Gey was conducting experiments in an attempt to create an immortal line of human cells that could be used in medical research. Those cells, he hoped, would allow scientists to unlock the mysteries of cancer, and eventually lead to a cure for the disease. Until this point, all of Gey’s attempts to grow a human cell line had ended in failure, but Henrietta’s cells were different; they never died.” (USF 2013-14 Common Reader, The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Pg1) The cells, called HeLa, became one of the most important tools in medical research, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and more. Less than a year after her initial diagnosis, Henrietta’s cancer was too much for her to bare, and the cancer took over her body. Because of her poverty she was buried in an unmarked grave on her family’s land. She was only thirty-one years old. Her family never knew, at that time that a portion small piece of Henrietta was still living, and that small piece would change the course...

Words: 2817 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Essay

...assey Barbeau 11/10/16 Mr. Mooney The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Essay Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Broadway Books, 2010 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is Rebecca Skloot’s debut monograph, and she has only written one other monograph since. Skloot attended Colorado State University, and received her MFA from University of Pittsburgh. Though she has only written two monographs, Skloot is the author of hundreds of essays and stories published in various magazines. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot, tells the story of a young African American woman named Henrietta Lacks, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Though she was put through many painful medical treatments, Henrietta Lacks succumbed to her illness at the young age of 31. Unbeknown to Henrietta and her family, surgeons at John Hopkins Hospital had taken tissue from Lacks’ tumor, and sent the cells to be investigated by Dr. Gey, a researcher at John Hopkins Hospital. Despite the fact that many would consider this morally corrupt, informed consent had not yet materialized at this time, so there was no legal wrongdoing on the part of John Hopkins. Much to Dr. Gey’s surprise, Henrietta Lacks’ cells were growing astonishingly...

Words: 1758 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Essay

...The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is uniquely arranged in a complex double plot line between Henrietta Lacks’ life story and the journey of discovery that the author, Rebecca Skloot, embarked upon in search of the truth behind HeLa (the cells of Henrietta Lacks). The narrative perspective of the work differs between both plot lines: the sections from the author’s point of view are spoken in first person, while the parts pertaining to Henrietta and her family have a third-person omniscient perspective. Beginning at Ch 29: A Village of Henriettas, the two plot lines of the novel converge, bringing together Rebecca Skloot and Henrietta’s devoted daughter, Deborah, as the two passionately collaborate to uncover the emotional shocking truth behind the mystery of HeLa. Book Context: Ch. 1-10 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks reveals the true story of the woman from the 1940-50s who was behind the miracle HeLa cells; these cells were the first to permanently survive outside the human body and they are still alive today in laboratories across the globe. Furthermore, these HeLa cells...

Words: 1599 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Henrietta Lacks

...The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, involves a great amount of various topics, from race, to gender, to cancer. A woman named Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman battling cervical cancer in the 1940’s until her death in 1951. As doctors tried to help her and find a cure for her, they had to study her cells and the cancerous cells. It was during the study of her cells that they realized her cells never died; in fact, her cells reproduced indefinitely. There are many ways to support the thesis of the book, exploring the ethics in medical research, and this book is relatable and significant to U.S. history involving medicine, race, gender, etc. The book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, was written because the...

Words: 800 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Analysis of Rhetorical Strategies

...Karen Plascencia Dr. Joe Puterbaugh English 101 11-03-12 Essay –Analysis of Rhetorical Strategies Rebecca Skloot’s book Rebecca Skloot’s book is an extraordinary and interesting book that narrates the live of Henrietta Lacks. The women who suffered from cervical cancer and later on died because of it. Doctors took out her cells without her family consents. Without knowing that those cells never die and the Doctors were getting multimillionaires. This book is really fascinating because it has several examples of how Henrietta Lacks used to live. Rebecca Skloot uses a rhetorical strategy to make this book even more real, she gives several supporting evidence when she spent few hours researching and trying to locate her family. She also, makes us feel what she feels about Henrietta Lacks and her family by explaining each moment of Henrietta’s life when she was alive and how this situation affected the family and she uses a clear tone to explain us how hard it was for Henrietta Lacks to be black and sick in those times and no getting the same treatment as whites. These strategies are: Logos, pathos and ethos. Rebecca Skloot uses logos in this book because she gives us supporting evidence about Henrietta Lacks. Since she was in school she heard about Hela cells, how they were reproducing every single minute and never die, but she was interested to know who was the person whom they took out the cells from. She asked to her teacher about the name of the person and her teacher...

Words: 913 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Henrietta Lacks Thesis

...Henrietta and the Lacks family Henrietta Lacks an Afro-American woman born August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia and later migrated to Dundalk (formerly Turner Station), Maryland. Henrietta married to her cousin David “Day” Lacks, they had five children; Lawrence, Elsie, David, Joseph (aka Zakariyyan Bari Abdul Rahman), and Deborah. In February 1951, Henrietta listened to Howard Jones, a gynecologist at John Hopkin Hospital, diagnosed her with Epidermoid Carcinoma of the Cervix Stage 1. Then eight months later, Henrietta enters into her final rest on October 4, 1951. What made her demise different from other related death, is that her cancerous cells changed medical history. Henrietta cancer cells killed her, it metastasized throughout her...

Words: 1571 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Reflection the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

...Reflection Paper: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Indeed Henrietta Lacks’ life is immortal. Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman of the 1950’s. She suffered from cervical cancer and eventually passed away at age 31. Because of her gender and race, she was treated unfairly and unable to receive proper treatment for cancer. A doctor by the name of Howard Jones was responsible for Henrietta’s diagnosis. As he examined the tumor in her cervix, he discovered it’s unusual size and color. Henrietta was then scheduled for treatment. The surgeon on duty was responsible for her treatment. His name was Lawrence Wharton. Because of Richard TeLinde’s theory, for research purposes, Wharton helped himself to a few samples of her cervix without the consent of Henrietta Lacks or her family. He then sent the tissues to a specialist by the name of George Gey. George Gey and his wife Margaret had been studying and growing cell cultures for years. With that being said, Gey and his wife grew Henrietta’s samples in a test tube in a lab at Johns Hopkins hospital. He eventually realized that these cells were not normal. They were immortal. And even now, fives decades after her death, HeLa cells are still being used for scientific research. A curious biology student known as Rebecca Skloot wrote The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. When Skloot was 16, she was taking a biology course at a community college for high school credit because the alternative school she went to didn’t offer it...

Words: 324 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Homework

...that did indeed change the world of science but took decades to surface. This intricate story is described in the award-winning book, “The Immortal of Henrietta Lacks”. Published just three years ago, Rebecca Skloot tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman, who became the source of the first line of immortal cells. Henrietta was born Loretta Pleasant in Roanoke, Virginia in 1920. Henrietta lived a typical life for a poor African American of that time - growing up on her family's tobacco farm until her mother’s death. By 1950, Henrietta had married her first cousin, David “Day” Lacks, birthed five children, and relocated to the Baltimore, Maryland area. In January of 1951, Henrietta went to the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital complaining of a “knot” in her lower abdomen. It was found that the knot feeling was due a dangerous and growing tumor in her cervix. After a formal diagnosis of cervical cancer, samples of Henrietta’s cervix were removed unbeknownst to her. The biopsy samples were given to Dr. George Gey, a tissue culture specialist. He was working on creating an immortal cell line to be used for human medical research. He discovered that Henrietta’s cells, later known as “HeLa” cells, were very unique because they grew exponentially faster than standard cell lines and never died. Henrietta Lacks died at the early age of thirty-one due to the her metastasized cancer. Interestingly, her death was just the beginning of her legacy. Knowing...

Words: 1561 - Pages: 7

Free Essay

Henrietta Lack's and Her Struggles

...Book: The Immortal Life of Henriettta Lacks Option A: Focus on Pathos Pathos Paper In the book Rebecca Skloot entitled, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” the reader is able to identify pathos in parts of chapter eight and eleven entitled, “The Miserable Specimen and The Devil of Pain Itself.” In chapter 8 Skloot uses pathos to describe how Henrietta dealt with racism during her treatment, her miserable state of being during her radiation therapy treatments, and how her treatment impacted her own interactions with her own kids. In chapter eight, the author puts the reader in a mixture of emotions such as; anger, sympathy, sadness, misery and many more. The author tells the reader how her color impacted the way doctors treated her when she became extremely ill. The early 1990’s best describes the “Jim Crowe Era,” how the “colored” people were segregated from the white folks from hospitals, bathrooms, restaurants, and many more. Skloot illustrates how Henrietta had to deal with improper treatment because of her color, when she was literally dying. The quote from page 64 says; “But several studies have shown that black patients were treated and hospitalized in later stages of their illness than white patients. And once hospitalized, they got fewer pain medications and had higher mortality rates,” best illustrates that with all the unfair treatment “colored” patients receive, the reader realizes that there is a very slight chance Henrietta will survive and fight...

Words: 1216 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Analysis

...are only 3 choice words that could be used to describe Rebecca Skloot’s nonfiction writing of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta, wife of David and mother of four, had cells taken from her body without her consent. The Lacks family did not know this until a much later date. Henrietta’s cells are now referred to as HeLa which is the pattern of which most doctors used to label the cells they took from patients, willing and unwilling: First two, Last Two. This hides the identity of the patient. Throughout this memoir you will be taken back and forth between 2 points of view, the story of Henrietta’s life as well as the struggles Rebecca Skloot goes through to contact and speak with the Lacks family....

Words: 859 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Notes

...Anderson ENWR 105 21 September 2012 Henrietta’s Lack of Human Rights In the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks it speaks of the life of Henrietta and how her cancerous cells have made the medical field much larger and more advanced. But did George Gey take her cells with good intent to help mankind, or was it selfish and greedy of him to go and take what he needed from his patient for his own experiment? This is completely wrong and disrespectful because he literally stole something from her without any form of consent whatsoever. He knew very well that he would be able to get away with it because he is a doctor. When a situation like this occurs it becomes a problem since it comes down to human rights and the need of the scientific community. Human rights should always come first, no matter what the case may be. Most if not all of the things that people did to Henrietta were wrong. The people had a good mind set to try to advance the medical field so that it could be more beneficial to mankind. But, it is only a matter of what extent you can go trying to do so, like injuring or killing someone in the process. In the book, Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, they actually point out what they are doing wrong and that they try to convince themselves that what they are doing is right. They tell you “Like many doctors of this era, Telinde often used patients from the public wards for research, usually without their knowledge” (Rebecca Skloot 29-30). You can clearly see that they are using...

Words: 1024 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Do the Ends Ever Justify the Means?

...Do the Ends Ever Justify the Means? When I first heard about the book "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks", I thought it was just a reading assignment when I was in high school that I had to complete for a grade. As I began reading I became particularly interested in Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cells. In "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks", Rebecca Skloot talks about Henrietta Lacks and how her cells were taken without her permission, and how her family suffered afterwards. Skloot shows how medicine and science were seen back in the 1950's compared to now. Henrietta Lacks was a “mother of five who died of cervical cancer at only thirty-one years of age” (Gabbay). When she passed away the doctors at John Hopkins asked her husband, David Lacks, if they could do a biopsy on her. At first he said no, but he finally told them they could go ahead. The doctors never told him or his family that they were going to take her cells and keep them. Nor did they tell the family that Henrietta's cells were growing at an incredible rate and were being shipped and bought across the world. “The existence of a constantly reproducing, or immortal, line of cells would permit an abundance of research that had never before been possible” this is what caused the cells to be coveted by doctors and scientist all over the world (Gabbay). “I have always thought it was strange, if our mother cells done so much for medicine, how come her family can’t afford to see no doctors? Don’t make no sense”...

Words: 1295 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Discrimination In The Tuskegee Experiment

...A poverty-stricken, black southern tobacco farmer named Henrietta Lacks became one of the most valuable cells in life itself. Being stripped of having any knowledge of her beautiful yet shocking possession, scientists claimed them as their own and referred to them as “HeLa cells”. Not only did Henrietta not know about her immortal cells, she was also medically mistreated as well as her family. The Lacks family didn’t know about Henrietta’s cells by more than twenty-five years later meanwhile they’re still indigent. Medical assistance can jeopardize our entitlement to our own bodies which are absurd. Doctors have given ill-treatment to many other simple people like Henrietta. Patients like Henrietta have faced issues with informed consent because of doctors wanting to research and gain a profit. Racial discrimination plays a factor in the lack of empathy towards patients. In "The Immortal Life of...

Words: 976 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Aristotelian Rhetorical Analysis

... The Nazis of the 1930’s and 40’s committed one of the most heinous breaches of morality in history. Josef Mengele lead Nazi doctors in conducting painful and sometimes fatal experiments on captured Jews without their consent. Rebecca Skloot uses the Aristotelian rhetorical technique of pathos in the contemporary biography The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks to demonstrate how, in the 1940s, the lack of medical ethics wronged countless families and individuals as they came to seek medical attention....

Words: 957 - Pages: 4