Henrietta Lacks's Hela Cells

Improved Essays
Historically slavery and segregation systematically design to oppress a person or race, specifically African Americans. In the mist of laws of segregation, it enforced experimentation, unjust condition, and poverty inflicted on the specific community of the African American. In 1950,’s an African American woman led and transformed scientific breakthrough of the 21st century. Although, Henrietta Lacks provided the ultimate sacrifice, she lived on through cells (HeLa). HeLa cells enable unbelievable discoveries from treatment to cures of various

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Henrietta Lacks Ethical debates and dilemmas are common in healthcare today. The Henrietta Lacks story was no exception. Her cells were taken without her knowledge and used to form a HeLa cell line, which has been used extensively in medical research (Arts & Entertainment, {A & E}, 2017). The purpose of this paper is to inform others about the Henrietta Lacks story and how ethical issues are relevant to this case.…

    • 868 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    James Tanner The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Timeline 1952 First immortal cells cultured. Collected from Henrietta's cervix. Named HeLa cells.…

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebbeca Skoolt, who’s a journalist, was in college when she learns information about Henrietta Lacks, and African American woman, who died in 1951, from cervical cancer. Some years later, she heard about the name again and was so curious that she decided to do research on this woman. Rebecca later learns that Henrietta’s cancerous cells were the first to become the first human cell line, called HeLa. After doing some research Rebecca later learned that in the 21 century, HeLa made some of the most important discoveries. Even so, little was known about Henrietta Lacks…

    • 887 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1920 August 1 Henrietta Lacks is born to Eliza Lacks Pleasant and Johnny Pleasant (Skloot 18). 1924 October 28 Eliza dies and in doing so leaves her ten children with their father. Johnny splits his children up among relatives and Henrietta goes to live with her maternal grandfather, Tommy Lacks (Skloot 18, 121). 1934 Lawrence Lacks is born to Henrietta Lacks and David Lacks (Skloot 23).…

    • 1311 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rebecca Skloot, the writer for the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, has been obsessed with Henrietta since she was sixteen-years old. Skloot tried looking up more information about Henrietta and her family but she couldn’t find any information. That’s when Skloot decided that she wanted to tell Henrietta story by writing a book. With Rebecca trying to get in contact with Henrietta daughter Deborah. Skloot didn’t know that the family would become hostile to the fact that they didn’t want to talk to her due to them thinking she was another reporter trying to get information about Henrietta cells.…

    • 857 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In 1950’s Maryland, segregation was at it’s height-Jim Crow laws were in effect, schools were separate but equal, and the Klu Klux Klan had a mainstream following. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, a black woman, whose cancer cells were taken from her without her permission. Though her lifespan only amounted to 31 years, the effect of her immortal cells will last an eternity. Although Henrietta was an African American woman, she received the best treatment available for her cancer at the time; however, her race affected her life greatly. Contrary to popular beliefs, Henrietta Lack’s race had little effect on her cells and the way she was treated in the hospital, in fact, she was given the best treatment that was available at the time.…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Essay On Henrietta Lacks

    • 1241 Words
    • 5 Pages

    This specific book is about the relationship between HeLa cells and science over a 60-year span. HeLa cells have been significant to scientific treatments, experiments, and research. HeLa cells originated from a poor, uneducated, woman from a small town who was referred to as Henrietta Lacks. She was a brave, strong,…

    • 1241 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Henrietta Lacks Religion

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The HeLa Cells, taken from Mrs. Henrietta Lacks in the early 1950’s without her consent, have lead to researchers finding a multitude of new treatments and making a myriad of new discoveries and even mass farming and distribution cells since then. But not without great human consequence and strife. Could it be something such as religion that holds what’s left of Henrietta’s tattered family together? Ultimately,…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Essay On Henrietta Lacks

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Her story, the medical breakthroughs made possible by researchers using HeLa cells, and the issues raised by their use are the subject of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot”. Not many people knew about Henrietta as a person or her story, most people knew her because of HeLa and her cells. Her kids were always having people talk to them about her cells, they never asked for her story they couldn’t trust a lot of people because of it, so when Rebecca asked her Henrietta’s story they were not very open to trusting her at…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The year is 1951, and the southern part of the country is completely segregated. Jim Crow laws are enforced to separate blacks and whites in a social perspective, as well as in social institutions. Life for blacks was complete hell. They were treated very poorly by white community members, as well as government officials. The incredible story of Henrietta Lacks and her eternal cells is not a story about racism.…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the early 1900’s, African Americans were faced with Jim Crow laws that created racial segregation in the United States, specifically the southern states. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, the protagonist, Henrietta was deprived of equal medical, legal, and educational services. The new historicism theory illustrates how African Americans were not given equal opportunities to medical attention, legal action and educational services needed as a result of Jim Crow laws. Henrietta is not given proper medical treatment because Jim Crow laws prevent her from receiving the treatment she needs. Henrietta noticed that she was unwell, and sought out her friends before seeking professional treatment, “‘I got a knot on…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Henrietta’s cells have revolutionized Science, but never did she receive the credit she should…

    • 1232 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    On February 8th of 1951, the immortality of HeLa cells was discovered. Such breakthrough caused an outburst in scientific development and the release of ways to cure millions of diseases, including, but not limited to, polio, cancer, leukemia, and hemophilia. Following this further, Rebecca Skloot is able to describe the person behind the HeLa cells and the interminable process that she had to go through in order to attain enough information to write about Henrietta Lacks and her immortal cells. Skloot’s utilization of rhetorical strategies – the use of ethos, logos, and pathos – effectively engages and retains the reader in the life experience of not only Henrietta and her surroundings, but also in Skloot’s research journey on the lookout for unpublicized but highly valuable information. Skloot strived on finding and publicizing Henrietta Lacks’ life story, including those small details that not even her children had heard of before.…

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    One of the most fundamental trust relationships is between a patient and their doctor. Physicians have supposedly earned their trustworthy title because of their extended education and desire to help others. However, this perception is being shattered by physicians violating patients’ trust by not providing all the information needed for making a responsible decision for a person’s health and performing unimaginable procedures. “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” provides multiple examples of the unethical practice of doctors. When scientists do not recognize their subjects as human beings and their relationship results in an unbalanced power dynamic, their advantageous position often leads to the unethical treatments of subjects, especially…

    • 1566 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is the story of a lower class, poor tobacco farmer, Henrietta Lacks who unknowingly has helped millions of people, after her death. Henrietta Lacks had discovered that a small “knot” in her stomach area, was actually cervical cancer, but the novel does not focus on her cancer, rather it focuses on her life, death, the issues her family faced with the medical field, and how her cells have saved the lives of millions of people. This novel is split into three individual sections, Life, Death, and Immortality, which all cover different aspects of Henrietta’s story. The first and second parts of this novel, Life and Death, are pretty similar to the novels and stories that we have read in class, especially Beloved.…

    • 1546 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays