This novel goes through the story of a woman named Henrietta Lacks. The book is based of her story that started with a cancer that was discovered in her when she thought she was possibly pregnant because of a feeling of a knot on her cervix. Although she wasn't pregnant they did find out she had a cervical cancer. Little did she know that some of her cancer tissue was removed and sent to George Gey’s lab in Hopkins. The scientist there, one named Gey , have been trying to get human cells to divide infinitely for a long time. This was all done without the permission of Henrietta nor any of her family members. Good for the lab the sample did start to divide and very fast, sadly Henrietta at the age of 31 she the fight against her cancer was over. Her husband David later allowed Ethel and Galen, a cousin and wife, to move into…
Part two of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks discusses the fate of Henrietta’s cells after she passes away. George Gey, the doctor that originally received Henrietta’s cells without her permission, asks her husband if he can perform an autopsy on Henrietta so that he can gain more knowledge on her cells. He wanted as many of her organs as possible to see if they would grow like the HeLa cells. Day refused at first because he planned on having a funeral, but Dr. Gey insisted that he perform the autopsy and promised to make her body suitable for a funeral.…
The characters from the book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” become attached to objects that are meaningful to them. It is noticed that a certain object had a significant meaning by analyzing the scene and the character. Dr. Geys assistant, Mary described Henrietta Lacks red nail polish on her toes. She described Henrietta being an actual woman, something Mary never thought of. Henrietta’s relatives described Henrietta with her red nail polish. The red nail polish was a meaningful object to Henrietta because it completed her. Dr. Gey was attached to Hela cells once he made the incredible observation. He didn't experiment for money, he genuinely did it for science. He sent the Hela cells for other scientists to experience the cells for…
On the cover photo Henrietta has her hands on her hips and has not yet reached the ago of 30. She is oblivious to the tumor slowly growing inside her and that she will soon leave 5 children motherless, and lead scientific breakthroughs for decades. The photographer is unknown, yet the picture itself has been in various media. Months before she died cells were cut from her cervix. There are many, many HeLa cells in labs today, an inconceivable number intact. Henrietta died in 1951 from cervical cancer. Before she died a surgeon took samples from her tumor and put them in a petri dish. Her cells reproduced a new generation every 24 hours, the first immortal cells every in a lab. Her cells helped scientists find new ways to treat cancer, herpes, influenza, and Parkinson's. Her cells have become the standard in labs. HeLa cells have been reproducing since 1951. There was little information about Henrietta prior to this book. The family was angry that cells were being sold for $25.00 a vile. They are also angry that they can barely afford health care when the people who took the cells became rich off of them.…
I agree that patients should have rights but personally I think that scientific advancement should be prioritized. Without the HeLa and Mo cells, cures would have taken longer to develop. Though it was wrong to keep it in secrecy, if Gey and his team had not taken the cells from Henrietta the world could be very different today. If they had informed Henrietta, she could have denied them taking her cells. In addition, Chakrabarty makes an argument for his patent about an engineered bacteria, where he states “patenting cell lines didn’t require informing or getting permission from the ‘cell donors’” on page 201. Finally, Christoph’s idea of cell ownership compared to oil strengthens the science/doctor’s side.…
There are health disparities in insurance coverage for the family. They were unable to afford insurance because it was too expensive. Deborah was the only child to truly care about information about her sister. This was a consequence in her health, which led her to have high blood pressure from the stress by the new information. The distal determinant of her health was the information she discovered about her sister, Elsie.The proximal determinant was the infomation about her mom and sister caused her to have hives. It was stress from her son, Alfred that was constantly committing crimes. It was interesting in how Henrietta’s cells were able to survive after her death for several years. The telomeres in her cancer cells kept connecting with her chromosomes, which never died. Henrietta was misdiagnosed with cervical cancer, the real problem was caused by HPV. The family’s reaction to the misdiagnosis surprised me. The family overcame many struggles such as figuring out Henrietta’s cells were used for research and the solution for several diseases such as…
HeLa Cells were basically the first cells to reproduce in the John Hopkins hospital in one of their labs. The HeLa Cells are name after Henrietta Lacks. They were called HeLa cells because they represent the first two initials of Henrietta’s first and last name in order for people not to know the source of them. This book is also divided into three parts. The first part is about Henrietta Lacks origins, life and how she is the source behind these cells who were part of everybody’s lives and who saved so many people. In the second part of the book, the author describes the HeLa cells and how they allowed science to come up with so many solutions and new things for patients who were suffering, And last but not least, the third part reveals the story of Henrietta Lack’s family and how even though her cells benefited the whole world, her family was still struggling with not financial help, therefore being impacted by these cells one way of another. On the other…
Dr. Stacie Bloom was surprised at how much she enjoyed reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. She assumed the book would be “beneath her”. After all, what could a book about HeLa cells written for the layperson teach an accomplished Director of Science (at the NY Academy of Sciences) with an extensive background in cell and molecular biology (that she didn’t already know)? Already somewhat familiar with Skloot’s reputation as a science writer for the NY Academy of Sciences, Bloom decided to give the book a chance. She discovered a narrative that both “amazed” and excited her. The story focused on the back-story of HeLa cells by interweaving a narrative between “Henrietta Lacks”, a poor African American mother with five small children, and the cancerous cells that wreaked havoc on her body. These cells had the rare “heartiness” required to survive in culture, resulting in the first robust human cell line. The consequence of this “immortality” would change…
When Skloot includes segments of her personal experiences, she allows the reader to see the journey of gathering information. Having to rely on what little documentation was available to her, Skloot relied on relatives to provide the life story of Henrietta Lacks. {1} Information was gathered by “conduct[ing] multiple interviews with multiple sources to ensure accuracy” (Skloot XIV). Without including the personal experience, the reader could never see how Skloot interacted with her interviewees and the Lacks family. How countless descendants denied Skloot of an interview, or how people who knew Henrietta didn’t dare speak her story without the permission of the family. One of these encounters occurred with Courtney Speed, after Skloot found her way to Turner’s Station. {3}{5} When Skloot mentioned she was trying to get into contact them, Courtney dejectedly responded, “‘I can’t tell you anything until you got the support of the [Lacks] family. I can’t risk that’” (Skloot 73). Courtney continues, ‘“I’ll tell you everything I know…just as soon as you talk to the family and they say it’s okay. I don’t want any more problems’” (Skloot 74). With the overwhelming lack of interviewees willing to share Henrietta’s story, collecting research was no easy task for Skloot.…
The emancipation of the African slave who was now disconnected from their traditions and way of life after nearly 300 years, is seemingly a great gush from the dam to the ebbs and flows of the struggle. The end of slavery as we know it, presented a ball of mixed emotions among the nation; North and SOUTH. Some slaves were grossly ecstatic to be free. For example, when a slave girl named Caddy, from Goodman, Mississippi found she was free, went to her mistress, flipped up her dress and told her "Kiss my ass!" On the contrary, some slaves were apprehensive of being free. For example, one elderly slave woman reportedly said, "I ain' no free nigger! I is got a marster and mistiss! Dee right dar in de great house. Ef you don' believe me, you go dar an' see." Though most slaves were detached from their families, many managed to regroup and find their love ones after their emancipation and constructed close knit families. Land was an viable means of survival in the minds of newly freedmen and the government was eager to deem lands to the ex-slaves . On January 16, 1865, General William T. Sherman told the freedmen that they will receive the land they were in search of. They were granted the head of each family would receive "possessory title" to forty acres of land. Sherman also gave the use of Army mules, thus giving rise to the slogan, "Forty acres and a mule." Similarly in 1862 the Union military set aside land in Port Royal, South Carolina, which became known as the Port Royal experiment. The freedmen bureau was created to aid newly freed slaves in the transition from bondage to freedom in 1865. After Lincoln's assassination the succession of his Vice president, Andrew Johnson, to the presidency meant that the white owners of the lands, that were given to the freedmen, would be returned. Sharecropping became a sort of ebb in the…
Martin Luther King, Jr. stated: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We must continue to bring political awareness to the issues that face many African-American families like our very own. It is important that we understand the value the importance of education and how we can continue to inform others about their right to vote. Yes, I said their right to right! This week changellege is inform others about the election. Not only is it vital we all VOTE, we should bring a friend or family member as well.…
What I enjoy about this novel is that it talks about the issues of a man who has essentially everything yet nothing at all. He has an education and he comes from a wealthy family yet his race has made it difficult for him. He has hardships like any other person…
He was able to bring the attention that it needs. Sadly, this novel is still relatable today as it was then. Showing that we have made little progress to fix this problem. He was able to let others know what the poor go through. Poverty changes people in negative ways and makes them behave in animalistic ways. It can change the way they look at life and everyone else around them. It can significantly change the chances of one reaching the “American Dream”. Poverty attacks everyone, it doesn’t see gender, color, or…
The Divine Command Theory is a meta-ethical theory which proposes that an action’s status as morally good is equivalent to whether it is commanded by God. The theory asserts that what is moral is determined by what god commands, and that to be moral is to follow his commands.…
Sabah, the second largest state in Malaysia, located on the northern island of Borneo, the third largest island in the world. Sabah covers an area of 72,500 square kilometers with a coastline of 14.400 kilometers of the South China Sea on the west coast, Sulu Sea in the northeast and Selebes Sea to the south. Broadly speaking, the size of the state is about the size of Ireland in Europe. The capital of Sabah is Kota Kinabalu formerly known as Jesselton during the time of colonialism. Kota Kinabalu has been upgraded to city status on February 2, 2002.…