Henrietta Lacks Essays

In August of 2013, Talha Khan Burki wrote “Righting a Long-standing Wrong for Henrietta Lacks” for Lancet Oncology. Burki’s purpose was to highlight the problem with the sequence data of patients’ cells (namely, Henrietta Lacks) being publicly released and to inform people of the privacy risks involved. Burki did a very good job at explaining what the issue was, what had been done about it and what needed to happen. Generally, readers struggle and become overwhelmed when they see a large sum of information

Scientist I recently finished reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack, a biography about Henrietta Lacks and how human tissue was taken without consent then used for medical research. Henrietta Lacks, was a colored woman, she was the daughter of a tobacco farmer, she came from a very poor, with very little education, she died from uremic poisoning, due to the treatment for cervical cancer October of 1951 at age 31. In January of 1951, Henrietta went to Johns Hopkins Hospital because she found a knot

The Fluidity of Henrietta Lacks. Gender Norms & Racial Bias in the study of the Modern “Henrietta Lacks” Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman whose cancer cells were the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research. An immortalized cell line will reproduce indefinitely under specific conditions, and the HeLa cell line continues to be a source of invaluable medical data to present day. Lacks was the unwitting

The 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

Skloot wrote The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman that grew up on a tobacco farm. Henrietta in her teen years was attracted to a boy named Day her cousin. Day and Henrietta got married and had family. Henrietta found out that she has cervical cancer. Doctors discovered Henrietta’s cells were very different than all other cells, the doctors called the cells HeLa. The scientific community and the media treat Henrietta and her family as abstractions through

Henrietta Lacks, a woman of many aliases, yet without a voice. Lacks suffered throughout her time past the diagnosis of her cervical cancer. So many people wanted to know more about her cells, without realizing where they came from. The cells came from a woman, whose strength was like no other. Not only did Henrietta suffer - she had a husband and children - all who wanted to see their loved one recover. Throughout the novel, Skloot exemplifies the theme of strength to show the person behind the

most important individuals’ in cell-line history. Now, knowing the full potential of these cells, the question arises of why the Lacks family was not told of the cells by the scientists themselves. Many possibilities arise, but the main one is that the existence of the cells would have gone against the wishes of the family. The sample of the tumor was taken before Henrietta died, but permission to perform tests was only requested after her death. Additionally, the permission was initially not granted

Henrietta Lacks was an African-American woman whose cells from her cancerous tumor led to many medical advances in the world. The cells led to the HeLa line, which have a crucial role in drug development and toxicity testing (Hunt). Prior to the HeLa line, it was proven impossible to grow human cells in a laboratory for any length of time. The conflict in this amazing discovery is that her cells were taken from her body for medical purposes without her permission. People argue that people have to

The book of Henrietta Lacks is an eye-opening story. It opened my eyes to all the injustices and moral issues of the medical field back in the early 1900s, but it also showed me how fast the field advanced with Henrietta’s cells. The book was very interesting and went over various issues involving Henrietta and her family. The book tells about Henrietta Lacks who was a black woman born in Roanoke, Virginia on August 1, 1920. Henrietta had a terrible case of cervical cancer which ultimately led to

Henrietta Lacks was born as Loretta Pleasants on August 1st, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia, She lived with her mother for 4 years until her mother died in 1924 for unknown reasons. After the death, she moved to her grandfather log cabin, which was a former slave quarter for their ancestors.There she met her cousin David “Day” Lacks. In 1935, the two cousins had a child, his name was Lawrence. A few years later they had another child by the name of Elise. Unfortunately, this child was developmentally

When an African American women had her cells stolen without her consent she had no knowledge as to how she was going to benefit the world, let alone the science industry. This woman is Henrietta Lacks. Her cells and her legacy will never be forgotten throughout the world. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot presents the scientific progression of HeLa cells with study cases, such as the study of viruses and the development of the polio vaccine, in order to prove to the reader

I read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot for the first time in high school for a summer reading assignment I was rushing to complete the last week of summer break. Four years later, I chose to read this book again because I now have an interest in biochemistry, in particular a goal to study antiviral agents in the hopes of a Hepatitis B cure. This time around, I understood the significance this book had because it revealed details of the racist treatment of African Americas that

Part two of, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, once again submerges the reader in to the world of HeLa cells. This section emphasizes what occurred with Henrietta’s immortal cells after her death. Along with the many medical discoveries made from these miracle cells, part two delves into the physical and emotional abuse that Henrietta’s children were forced to live with after her passing all while struggling financially while their mother’s cells are being sold for millions of dollars. Skloot

Henrietta Lack was an African American woman born in 1920 who helped science define some of the world’s medical discoveries. Many woman were dying every year from cervical cancer. Little did she know what the future held for her and millions of other people. This situation saddens me as a medical professional because a human was treated as a specimen rather than a person. Even though this was many decades ago, I feel as though there still should have been standard practices in place that prevented

science; all thanks to one woman, Mrs. Henrietta Lacks. The history of Mrs. Lacks’s contribution to these studies raised many ethical issues concerning healthcare practice. In the short film, The Way of All Flesh, we learn how these cells were revealed by direct violation of ethical principles. During the 1950s, matters regarding informed consent practices were in their beginning stages of implementation. The first direct violation of ethical principles with Lacks was the breach of autonomy. During

Introduction The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is the story of Henrietta Lacks and her cells. When Henrietta was diagnosed with cervical cancer her cells were taken without her consent. These cells, unlike most cells, did not die in culture. Over the years, they have been constantly replicating and are used in experiments all over the world. These cells are known as HeLa. HeLa cells contributed lots of scientific knowledge, but were also a curse to the Lacks family. Key Idea 1: The Anatomy

Rebecca Skloot’s purpose in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is to present Henrietta and her family’s story while presenting issues regarding science, ethics, race, and class in Henrietta’s story. Skloot also had a major goal of teaching people about Henrietta’s case so that it could be learned from in the future. This purpose can be broken down into three sub-purposes: showing the world the woman behind the science, discussing the roles of race and class, and critiquing science and ethical

Loretta Pleasant was the birth name of the person we recognize today as Henrietta Lacks. She was raised by Grandpa Tommy at the age of 4 and grew up with a cousin named David Lacks (he was known as Day throughout the book. Fast forward a few years and now Henrietta at the age of 20 is married to a now 25 year old Day. After moving to Turner Station, Henrietta life starting to get complicated. After visiting the famous John Hopkins Hospital, Henrietta’s biopsy results came back and she was diagnosed

Henrietta Lacks was thirty years old and found a ‘knot’ on her cervix, which led to her going to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer and treated with radium and x-ray therapy. Some of the tissue was removed from her tumor and sent to George Gey’s lab to be grown in test tubes. Gey was in charge of the Tissue Culture Department at Hopkins and had been researching and experimenting to attempt to make cells to divide so they could have an unlimited supply of cells

Institute, about 40% of people will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their life, and there were approximately 13,776,251 people living with cancer in 2012. Cancer is a common disease with many types and forms. The book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot shows the story of a woman with cervical cancer, and how her illness affected herself and her family. Although cancer affects a patient physically, it also has effects on the patient mentally and financially, as well as it challenges