Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Essay

Henrietta Lacks was a poor African American that became one of the most vital tools in developing medicines like polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and much more. She was a loving mother of five, wife, sister, and friend to many that was taken on October 4, 1951 at the age of thirty-one to cervical cancer. Henrietta’s cells were taken without her knowledge to develop the first ever immortal line of cells.

Then it was transferred to George Gey’s lab, where they would cultivate it and attempt to grow new cells from the sample, however, there was not much hope for the sample, as they all eventually died within days, sometimes even hours. Henrietta’s cells changed this, after multiple days of being cultivated and still living, Gey began to realize that he had discovered something amazing, and he slowly started to share his discovery with the world.

Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman who lost her life to cervical cancer. Henrietta was born on August 1, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia (Skloot 18). Henrietta’s mother passed away, and Henrietta’s father could not raise ten children by himself. Her father took all ten children back to his hometown of Clover, Virginia where the children were divided between family members, and Henrietta ended up being raised by her grandfather who raised Henrietta and several of her cousins (Skloot 18). Henrietta grew up taking care of the family tobacco field, and she only went to school until the 6th grade. At 14, She had her first child with her cousin, David “Day” Lacks, and in 1939, Henrietta and Day had a daughter named Elsie who was developmentally

Doctor George Gey, the Doctor who presided in the surgical efforts preforming the medical treatments during Henrietta’s medical observation appointments. Henrietta Lacks family should be compensated for their family members major driving initiatives derived from researching how to cure cancer because of Henrietta cell cultures. Did Henrietta realize the potency in her body to be a medical breakthrough healing social cancer endeavors more than successfully aiding Henrietta’s survival. Better than most, yet infected as she was, health activist Mary Lasker pushed an advantage for American growth to find a cure to cancer once and for all, in 1971 Mary Lasker

Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951, when ethics were not so important to doctors as much as the breaking medical discovery. Henrietta's cells were taken from her without consent from her or her family, also known as HeLa cells. Lack's cells have made an extensive impact on the world today. Now, the knowledge we have about her cells being took from her, makes the world question the ethics that were set in stone in this time and place. Henrietta Lacks has made a permanent impression to all who know about her story.

Born Loretta Pleasant on August 1, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia to Eliza and John Randall Pleasant. At some point, she changed her name to Henrietta Lacks. When Loretta was four years old , her mother died giving birth to her tenth child. Loretta father was unable to take care of the children alone, he then moves the family to Clover, Virginia, where the children were distributed among relatives. Henrietta ended up with her grandfather Tommy Lack, where she shared a room with her 9-year-old cousin who would become her husband, David “Day” Lacks.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, is about a poor African American Women named Henrietta Lacks, better known as “HeLa” to the rest of the world, whose Cells taken, unbeknownst to her, revolutionized the medical field. Henrietta, originally named Loretta Pleasant, was born on August 1, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia. After her mother’s death when she was 4 years old, her father felt incapable of taking care of her, so she was given to her grandfather and raised an old plantation house with her fist cousin, whom she ended up marrying and having four children with. Her story really starts in 1951, after she went to Johns Hopkins Hospital because of what she described a “knot” inside her. Turns out she had adenocarcinoma of the cervix (cancer of the cervix) which caused the formation of many tumors. During the treatment of her Cervical Cancer, without her consent, two tissue samples of her cervix were removed. After examination of these samples, Dr. George Otto Gey observed something “never seen

When further research was done on her cancerous cells, without her family’s consent, they were found to be known as the “immortal cells” or HeLa cells. In addition to explaining her experience, Skloot explains how the discovery of the HeLa cell moved science forward greatly; for research for many treatments, human genetics, chromosomal disorders, and many diseases. A big portion of Skloot’s reason for writing this book was to explain Henrietta’s story. Her family is greatly involved in interviews while writing this book. Those family members include Deborah Lacks, her daughter, David Lacks, her cousin, and Lawrence Lacks, Henrietta’s older brother. In addition, Doctors George Gey who was the head of tissue cultures at John Hopkins and worked with HeLa cells and Howard Jones who had first examined Lacks’

There were many scientific advances made possible by Henrietta’s cells (HeLa cells). In the 1950s, Jonas Salk used the cells to test the first polio vaccine.Thanks to mass produced HeLa cells, Salk’s vaccine was ready for human trials in least than a year. In the sixty years since the cells were first taken from Henrietta’s cancer, over twenty tons of cells have been grown from her samples (Biography.com Editors).

It was inevitable that Henrietta wouldn’t enjoy going to an institution where people of her race felt unwelcomed; she was understandably scared. The finding of her cancer tumor is revealed at the very end of chapter one. During the doctor’s exam he discovered an enormous tumor in her cervix. What was more surprising was that there was no record of the abnormality during her delivery of her son three months prior; which meant it had “grown at a terrifying

Also, while the doctors were making money off of Henrietta’s cells the family was struggling to get by and received no compensation. The Lacks’ family are African-American, in which, during the 1950s racism and segregation were still dreadfully thriving. Since the Lacks’ family were of a different color it was very difficult for them to be checked out by any kind of doctor. One ethical issue throughout the book is the proper supply of giving consent. Skloot wrote in her book, “no one told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting samples or asked if she wanted to be a donor” (33). Henrietta had no knowledge that the doctors were going to take cells from her tumor and cells from her healthy cervical tissue to try and grow them for medical research. If Henrietta knew what her cells could have done medically then she most likely would have allowed them to take her cells and done research. However, taking someone’s cells or doing something to someone’s body without them knowing will in no way be

George Gey then was able to use these cells to culture the first ever immortal human cells in his lab. These cultures were grown from one of the samples taken without consent to spark the beginning of the medical consent crisis. This issue of implied consent verses written/informed consent is what called for stricter guidelines surrounding human research and informed consent for doctors and hospitals who had historically been known for misconduct by today’s standards. This is the main focal point of the book and how Henrietta’s race and the social norms at the time allowed for this to happen. At the time African Americans were still not completely equal in all parts of society and were often used for research without their consent or being informed that they were undergoing testing. Though this was most common among African Americans it still did happen among other races due to the fact that it was more socially acceptable in the 1950’s and back. In addition to taking samples without Henrietta’s consent, so called “cell factories” began to profit from the sales of these cells and the family didn’t receive money from such sales. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of a woman and her family stuck in the tangles of a legal and cultural battle over whether or not the samples were taken

George Gey and without her consent or knowledge he took the tissue samples that created the HeLa frenzy. However, Gey kept the identity of Henrietta a secret until his final years and it was often reported incorrectly that HeLa stood for Helen Lane. Ultimately, the treatments she received from John Hopkins were not enough and Henrietta passed away at the tender age of 31. Part two, Death explores the impact HeLa cells had on the world and the chaos it caused her family. After Henrietta’s death, her children were left in the care of her malicious cousin Ethel and was subjected to child neglect and abuse. The baby of the siblings Zakariyya suffered the worst at her hands and the experience molded his tumultuous behavior. Deborah, who was the driving force behind the book, suffered mentally and physically as well growing up, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to seek information about her mother and sister Elsie. Though, the biggest downfall was that Henrietta’s family developed a mistrusting attitude towards doctors and refused to get the proper help needed to treat an assortment of ailments. HeLa, on the other hand, was saving the lives of millions and being massed produced globally for an array of

In the novel The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, the story of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman, whose suffering changed the course of medical research is told through the eyes of the Lacks family. Skloot explains the story told to her by the Lacks family after much convincing that Thirty year old Henrietta Lacks was desperately looking for help in 1951 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for what she found and called a "knot" on her cervix. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer and treated with radium and x-ray therapy. In the process, some of the tissue was removed from her tumor and sent down to George Gey 's lab at Hopkins to be cultured, or grown, in test tubes. Gey was the head of the tissue culture department at Hopkins and he 'd been trying for years to get cells to divide infinitely in the lab so that the scientific community could have an infinite supply of human cells to experiment on. Neither Henrietta nor any of her family members knew about the tissue sample—and neither Gey nor Hopkins ever informed them. They didn 't inform them even after the cells began to grow amazingly fast and Gey and the rest of the scientific world realized they 'd just made a gigantic breakthrough in medical technology. Eventually, the never ending reproducing cells was used to create the polio vaccine, yet no recognition was ever given to Henrietta. Skloot presents the idea of the medical and scientific hospitals being tainted and manipulated by

Gey found that Henrietta cells were different than the usual cells. It was never happening before when Gey found a cell that grows with mythological intensity in the lab. Usually, every cell will die or survive for a while in the lab. “However, the Henrietta’s cancer cells seemed unstoppable as long as they had food and warmth” (Skloot 65). This was the first immortal human cells that they called HeLa. This name came from the first two letters of the name Henrietta Lacks.