The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is, arguably, two different stories. It is the story of Henrietta Lacks and her family. It is also the story of Henrietta’s cancerous cells and how their impact on science changed her family forever. Henrietta Lacks explores racial and economic inequality and how they worked together to create an extremely unjust situation for the Lacks family. Henrietta Lacks was an African-American woman who lived in Jim Crow era America. As such, when she fell ill, she did
Words: 845 - Pages: 4
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Henrietta Lacks was born into a poor African American family of tobacco farmers in Roanoke, Virginia in 1920. She was sent to live with relatives in Clover, Virginia after the death of her mother. She later married her first cousin, Day, in 1941. After the Great Depression and World War 1 the couple moved to Bethlehem, Maryland where there was a job opportunity for Day at the steel mill. Here they bought a home in Turner Station. Henrietta and Day had five children:
Words: 1865 - Pages: 8
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
Words: 1571 - Pages: 7
In 1973, Bobbette Lacks and Gardenias’ brother in law were meeting in the dining room of Gardenia’s row house in Washington, DC. The two began conversing and soon found out that Gardenia’s brother-in-law worked at the hospital that, unbeknownst to the Lacks family, housed Henrietta’s cells and was using them for cancer experiments. Later in the chapter at Yale University, researchers from Hopkins meet and discussed a contamination problem that manifested with the Henrietta Lacks Cells “HeLa,” Their
Words: 787 - Pages: 4
name to “Henrietta.” Her mother, Eliza Lacks Pleasant, who later died 4 years after giving birth to Henrietta. After her mother passed away Henrietta along with her father, Johnny Pleasant, and other siblings moved to a family home of Clover, Virginia. There in Clover where Henrietta met her husband Day, they grew up together and got married on April 10, 1941. She gave birth to five beautifully children, where she started to feel pain within her cervix after her fourth child. Henrietta Lacks was a beautiful
Words: 1711 - Pages: 7
The solution to Henrietta Lacks The Ethics and Legal Solution Natalie Smith May 26, 2018 Medical Terminology, Law and Ethics 2 After reading the book of “The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks” a few years ago I was very amazed on how doctors back in those days just took bodily fluids and did experiments on patients without their permission. Since Henrietta was poor and doctors didn’t think it mattered if they took her cells it wouldn’t be any issues. Once they found out that her cells
Words: 511 - Pages: 3
Henrietta lack’s mother died when she was four. Henrietta married Day at the age of 14, and had five children, and lived a life of poverty. She lived in poverty in Virginia with her 5 children. Henrietta Lacks was born on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia. Lacks died of cervical cancer on October 4, 1951, at age 31. Cells harvested from her body without her knowledge formed the HeLa cell line. Hinretta’s cells have been researched in every manner imaginable since that time. The Immortal Life of
Words: 858 - Pages: 4
Race or racism would indeed be an appropriate way to interpret The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This is due to the fact that when Henrietta died in 1951, the United States was still racially segregated. The African-American Civil Rights Movement would not begin until four years later, but would end somewhere in the neighborhood of eight years prior to Henrietta’s story making its debut in the mainstream media. Light had been shed on the issue of racism by 1976, making it a known issue to a vast
Words: 475 - Pages: 2
book "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks", I thought it would not have been fascinating to peruse. However, when I saw the intro page of the book, it stood out enough to be noticed. I began perusing and got keener on the book, especially in Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cells. In "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks", Rebecca Skloot discusses Henrietta Lacks and how her cells were taken without her authorization, and how her family endured a while later. Henrietta Lacks endured physically, as well
Words: 553 - Pages: 3
The article Henrietta Lacks written by an unknown writer is a very informative and persuasive article. The author was successful as informing and persuading me in this article. The unknown author’s purpose seems to be to tell the story of Henrietta Lacks threw a sort of legal and biased point of view. The first sentence in the article starts, “the restrictive agreement between the government and the family of the unknowing HeLa cells donor was welcome and long overdue” (Henrietta Lacks), this tells
Words: 456 - Pages: 2
