Henrietta Lacks Research Papers

Henrietta Lacks Timeline 1920’s August 5 1920-Henrietta Lacks is born in Roanoke, Virginia with the name Loretta Pleasant 1924-Henrietta’s mother Eliza Lacks Pleasant dies giving birth Henrietta went to go live with her grandfather, Tommy Lacks and her cousins Joe and Day on a tobacco farm 1930’s 1934-Henrietta becomes pregnant with her cousin Day’s child Lawrence and later a daughter Elsie who was mentally challenged 1940’s 1940 -Fred buys a bus ticket to travel up north to join his other cousins working at a steel mill outside of baltimore called turner station April 20 1941-Henrietta and Day get married December 1941-Japan bombs pearl Harbor which bring more demand from Turner Station Henrietta cousin Fred returns successfully from

Henrietta Lacks was a poor black tobacco farmer,born in Roanoke, Virginia on August 1 ,1920.Henrietta’s mother died when Henrietta was very young, her dad did not wanted to take care of her and her siblings, so they were sent with different relatives. She grew up with her grandfather. Henrietta died at age of 31 years old of cervical cancer, on October 4, 1951. At the age of twenty-nine she felt a “knot” inside of her. In the year of 1950, she had a full-fledged tumor just three months  after she had felt the knot.

Have you ever heard of Henrietta Lacks, Phineas Gage, or Douglas Mawson? All of these people underwent major struggles for the sake of science, but one stands out more than the rest. Henrietta Lacks was a woman who died at age 31 due to cervical cancer; her cells helped form a multi-million dollar industry (“Immortal Cells, Enduring Issues”). Phineas Gage was a railroad worker who had once shoved a iron rod into a blasting hole, which caused the rod to shoot into his skull. Gage faced side effects from this that led scientists to uncover details on the frontal lobe of the brain, and brain disorders (“The Man with the Hole in his Brain”).

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Doctors took her cells without consent and launched a multi-million dollar industry. Her name was Henrietta Lacks, a poor wife, mother, and farmer. Lack cells opened the door for many new advances in medicine. These advances include: the polio vaccine and nuclear testing. These cells have helped us to understand cancer, HIV/AIDS, and cells in general.

After her death in 1951, for six decades, the name Henrietta Lacks was not a recognized name in the eyes of the society, but cells containing her DNA did. HeLa Cells are the first immortal human cells, cancerous cells taken from Henrietta’s cervix never die, in fact they multiply every twenty-four hours. After spending 10 years to perfect her first book, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot encapsulated the life, the death, and aftermath of Henrietta Lacks’ life. Throughout her book, Rebecca Skloot takes the reader on an extraordinary journey through the lens of the Lacks family, dealing with controversial issues regarding science, ethics, race, and class. The journey of the Lacks families started in Henrietta’s hometown Clover, Virginia then progressed to the “colored” ward of

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is about the life of the woman whose cells changed the medical field and about the impact those cells have on her family. Henrietta was a black woman who grew up in Clover, Virginia in a family of poor, tobacco farmers. Her mother died when she was young and her father left shortly after, leaving her to be raised by her grandfather, who was also raising her cousin, Day. She later married Day and they moved to Turner Station, outside of Baltimore, Maryland because Day was able to get a decent paying job. Henrietta and Day had five children: Lawrence, Elsie, Sonny, Deborah, and Zakariyya.

In nature, success is measured by fitness-- or the ability to pass on one’s genes to the next generation. Passing on genes to the next generation ensures a type of immortality; humans do not live forever, therefore, their genes continue on for centuries through their lineage. Henrietta Lacks, however, was the first person to become immortal outside of reproduction-- through cells. As discussed in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Henrietta was an African-American woman whose cancerous cells were extracted to create the first immortal cell line, more commonly referred to as HeLa cells. HeLa cells would become an asset in medicine and continue to exist in labs all around the world, long after Henrietta’s death (Skloot, 2010).

Rebecca Skloot develops the idea that poverty comes with many difficult situations, in the book, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks". True, Henrietta and her family were poor, could barely afford their medical bills, and they didn 't get the extended care that they deserved. You will learn how being poor can change your life and what is done with it . In the book, Henrietta 's daughter, Deborah, has many medical problems and she has to spend all her money on not even all her medicine.

In the book one of the main points of the book was when Henrietta got diagnosed with cervical cancer. this is one of the main Contributing points of the story. The cervical cancer shows signs of unusual behavior of Henrietta cells because as stated by (Rebecca Skloot, 2000, p. 17) " Doctor Jones has seen thousands of cervical cancer lesions, but Henrietta 's was shiny, purple, and so delicate it bled when touch." As time went on Henrietta received her pulmonary results that stated (Rebecca Skloot, 2000, p. 27), " Epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix Stage 1." When Henrietta arrived at Hopkins University for cervical cancer there was a nationwide debate going on about the types of cervical cancer, there was three key people of the debate that was Doctor Jones, his boss, and Richard Wesley Telinde.

Henrietta Lacks was a black tobacco farmer from the south who, in 1950, at the age of 30, she was diagnosed with aggressive cervical cancer. Lacks went to John’s Hopkins medical center for treatment for her cancer. In April of 1951, she underwent surgery to remove the larger tumor on her cervix. Henrietta Lacks, died three days following the surgery. Even though Henrietta Lacks died, her cells from the tumor have lived on and have made a major impact on the biomedical community.

In the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, education plays a substantial role in what occurs throughout the book. Many major events are related to people not understanding what is happening to them. Skloot brings up the topic ’Lack of Education,’ frequently and this affected Henrietta's treatments, and how her family viewed the situation, and how the black community viewed scientist overall. In many occasions lack of education causes a major event to happen, “she didn't write much, and she hadn't studied science in school,”(pg 16) with little education Henrietta had no idea what was wrong with her. Without Henrietta or her family knowing symptoms of certain diseases Henrietta does not go to the hospital till the end.

Bushra Pirzada Professor Swann Engh-302 October 4th 2015 Rhetorical Analysis: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks written by Rebecca Skloot tells the story of a woman named Henrietta Lacks who has her cervical cancer. It further goes to tell the audience how Henrietta altered medicine unknowingly. Henrietta Lacks was initially diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951; however, the doctors at John Hopkins took sample tissues from her cervix without her permission. The sample tissues taken from Henrietta’s cervix were used to conduct scientific research as well as to develop vaccines in the suture.

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 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.

Racism in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Imagine your mother, sister, wife, or cousin was diagnosed with cervical cancer and you believed the doctors were doing everything in their power to help her. Only later you discovered her cells were used for research without consent and she was not properly informed of the risks of her treatment due to her race. This story happened and is told by Rebecca Skloot in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Skloot use of narrative and her writing style enhances the understanding of the story. Henrietta Lacks was a young black woman who was diagnosed with cervical cancer at John Hopkins Hospital.

Being a woman herself gave her an advantage in gynecology. Her writing makes her different from other doctors of her time because it implies that she was a hands-on learner. Pathology is important because without it people would be dying all around us and with modern day medicine that should not be happening for any reason. Gynecology is just as important as pathology. Undoubtedly, women and children would die.