The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, her family, and researchers who have exploited her cell line under the name of advance in medical research. In 1951, when Henrietta Lacks was treated for cervical cancer at John’s Hopkin hospital, a physician collected her cervical cancer cells and handed to a researcher without proper process of informed consent. In a research lab, her cancer cells were harvested and disseminated to other labs. Henrietta’s cancer cells become the first immortal human cell line and became widely used for scientific research. When her cell lines were sold by billions throughout the entire country and HeLa cells became popular research tools in the scientific community, …show more content…
This experiment, conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service, was intent to study the natural progression of syphilis in African American male population. The study participants voluntarily participated in the study but the researchers did not properly inform the participants on the availability of treatment or the risks of the disease if untreated. To make the matter worse, the participants were deliberately led to believe that they were receiving treatment from the Public Health Service for free, while the actual treatment was being withheld to achieve the purpose of the research. In today’s point of view, it is surprising that even the federal agency did not respect the dignity of human rights for the sake of research. In Henrietta’s era, even the federal agency did not follow the proper informed consent procedure, and a prestigious institution like John’s Hopkins did not have any regulations or office such as Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) to govern their research protocols to protect human subjects and their rights. Later in 1964, the World Medical Association issued the Declaration of Helsinki which is a set of ethical principles on human subject biomedical studies. Despite its contribution as the cornerstone documentation to human research ethics, just like Nuremberg Code, it was not regulated under the international law, and many biomedical experiments had kept conducting unethical human
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
1695 Words | 7 PagesIn her work, Skloot reveals Henrietta Lacks to be an African-American woman whose cervical cells were biopsied without her consent. These cells, known as HeLa (a combination of Lacks first and last name), have since been shared among various scientists and researchers and been the framework for ground-breaking research. Unlike other works on Henrietta Lacks, Skloot set out to tell
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
400 Words | 2 PagesIn Rebecca Skloot’s novel “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” , she informs readers about “HeLa” aka Henrietta and also about her journey discovering the many traits of Lack’s past . Henrietta Lacks , known in the medical world as “HeLa” died in 1951 due to cervical cancer . She experienced frequent bleeding from her genital parts , due to a tumor that was in her womb . She wasn’t known for going to the doctor whenever she had a health problem , but in the book Skloot said that HeLa explained the tumor as a “ lump in her in womb” and had a feeling that she needed a doctors help. After being looked at by her doctor and being tested for possibly having syphilis , she was redirected to a gynecologist .
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
586 Words | 3 PagesIn 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.
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
585 Words | 3 PagesWithin 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
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
972 Words | 4 PagesMany of the concepts we have learned this semester are used in “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot. They are cells, mitosis, viruses, lab safety, and even the scientific method. The book is based on cells so there are many times when it talks about them. There is a time when a person sees a cell going through mitosis and meiosis. The cells in the book are taken from a woman with cancer.
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
577 Words | 3 PagesSahra 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 .
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
869 Words | 4 PagesAbout 60 years ago, before African Americans had much respect at all, there was a woman named Henrietta Lacks who was diagnosed with cancer in her cervix. Without asking for permission, Henrietta’s doctors took some of her cells from her cervix, and they took them to do more research on them and tried to grow them for the first time outside of a persons body. Because she was African American, she and the rest of her family were not respected by doctors, or many other people at this time. These cells later became very critical to medical advancements and scientific research for the rest of the world. But, the injustice of this situation raises a large controversy over whether or not this is justified.
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
1150 Words | 5 PagesRobertson 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.
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
631 Words | 3 PagesThe 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.
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
685 Words | 3 PagesThroughout 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
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
1331 Words | 6 PagesHenrietta’s Story- One of Great Miracles History is made everyday by everyone; however, some become more prominent in it than others. Whether this be through their actions or their beliefs, it influences generations to come. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot begins when a young African-American mother, friend, and wife made an enormous contribution to science and medicine. Yet, this incredible journey all started in a time when Jim Crow laws were still in place, and racial slurs were thrown out daily; an abhorrent era where not all were seen as equivalent with equal rights. In a time where racism was very prevalent, not all history made during this time reflected that view.
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
1240 Words | 5 Pages“Consent, an issue for the Patient” In 1951, Henrietta Lacks’ cells were taken without her knowledge and to this day are still being used , she never got any type of recognition for that either both financially and publicly . Giving permission to doctors to do what they want with your body is a big debate today . Some people believe that there is no need for doctors to ask , and others think if somebody has something the world needs there is no such thing as permission . These people also believe that your body should be at the full disposal of the doctors . If it is your body you should be the only person in charge of what happens to it .
Henrietta Lacks Thesis
1020 Words | 5 PagesThe 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.
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks
1172 Words | 5 PagesWhat is Unintentional Becomes Valuable The novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written almost sixty years after the death of Henrietta Lacks, was produced by Rebecca Skloot who, while researching, personally interacted with the family and educated them on the topic. After Henrietta’s death, her family is left with a great amount of confusion and dissatisfaction. Not only can Deborah Lacks, daughter of Henrietta, and her siblings not comprehend what happens to Henrietta and her cells, but an underlying pit of anger and fear within them deepens from not knowing.
Summary Of The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks
1243 Words | 5 PagesNonfiction books can often expand ones knowledge, especially in the subject of science. In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, writer of the book and journalist Rebecca Scloot finds herself looking at an image of an African American whom had a tumor growing in her body without knowledge of it. This woman in the photo, Henrietta Lacks, although her name was unknown by most scientist and teachers, helped change the face of medicine back then and even today. Henrietta Lacks started getting treatment for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital at age 31. The physicians at the hospital cut a dime size piece of her tumor and sent it into the lab where George Gey then put it on clots of chicken blood to see if the cells would grow.
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