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The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

461 Words2 Pages

On the day of October 4, 1951 a women by the name of Henrietta Lacks passed away at the age of thirty-one due to cervical cancer. Even though Lacks died on that day she still lives to this very day. This is because then Lacks was undergoing treatment for her cancer at John Hopkins Hospital her doctor took samples Lack’s tumor caused by the cancer. Researchers tested to see how long her cells could live while outside of her body. Researches were surprised to find out that somehow Lacks’ cells wouldn’t die. So even though Lacks’ is dead her cells aren’t. That’s the main focus point and title of the book comes from. “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is a non-fiction book narrated by the author Rebecca Skloot. Skloot’s inspiration of this book came from a biology class she took. During class one day the topic of Henrietta Lacks and her immortal cells, also known as HeLa cells.. The teacher told her class about how her cells where immortal but, couldn’t provide any other information. Skloot did further research but, couldn’t find anything. She didn’t understand why more information about Lacks’ wasn’t known even though her cells made amazing …show more content…

One story follows Skloot and her journey on finding and convincing the Lacks’ family to be interviewed about the women behind the immortal cells. Another one talks about the remarkable things that HeLa cells have done in the research of the medical field such as cancer treatment, AIDs research, and the polio vaccine. The final one is on the topic of informed consent and how doctors have been doing tests on their patients without their knowledge. Even though there are three stories being told you don’t feel overwhelmed with the information being told to you. All stories are told and paced very well. Skloot’s did her best to tell the story of Henrietta Lacks the why it was told to

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