Rebecca Nurse

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a book by Rebecca Skloot that tells the story of a woman named Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer in 1951. A few months before her death, a doctor took a small sample of her cancer cells, which became the first and most important line of human cells to survive and multiply in a laboratory setting. Her cells helped scientists make some of the most important medical advancements in history, but the cells were taken without her knowledge…

HeLa cells were the basis of cell culture in the latter half of the 20th century. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot explores the scientific achievements and ethical issues relating to HeLa cells, as well as the connection HeLa cells have with the Lacks family. When Henrietta Lacks was being treated for cervical cancer, the doctors shaved parts of her tumor off and sent them to a lab, where her cancerous cells never stopped dividing. She never consented to have her cells…

In the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot first presents us with various descriptions about HeLa cells, such as “immortal” and “never dies”. Thus, these distinct attributes that tremendously prolonged the life of of HeLa cells make the cells become one of the most significant tools in medical fields, such as cancer treatment, vaccine development, etc. As a person who learned biology in the past, Skloot knew the facts about HeLa cells, and they conduce to the whole world;…

In Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, racial stereotyping against minority patients is predominant in every aspect of health care. Many of these stereotypes in Skloot’s book painted blacks as unintelligent and vulnerable and led to many doctors taking advantage of their patients. Henrietta Lacks was one of these patients and unfortunately doctors made millions off of her cancerous cervix cells without her informed consent. Her cells, named HeLa cells, helped cure the…

During World War II, terrible, unspeakable, experiments were being performed on prisoners without their knowledge or their consent. These experiments were performed against the prisoners’ will and ignored any and all medical conscience that today’s doctors hold as the standard. Though these experiments are considered one of the darkest times in terms of medical-ethics, these very experiments yielded some valuable information. With this in mind, a topic that has arisen decades after the original…

experiences act as the sacrifice that ultimately aids all people. To have the ability to serve all of humanity is a massive honor; however, that honor does not mean equivocate to ultimate sacrifice. The novel "The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks" By Rebecca Skloot subtly suggests that utilitarianism in medical ethics is necessary, so that everyone may benefit from medical discovery. However, the wounds of the deeply personal side effects, inflicted by utilitarianism, may be more painful than…

When trying to review a book several aspects of it are usually considered. Those aspects include: themes, characters, plot, and the like. When reading a book, it can be hard to pick out those aspects. It is then that the true meaning of the book may be missed. That is why sometimes people come away from a book with very different meanings from what they read. This is usually due to what lens a person may be looking through when they are reading and trying to digest this book. When reading, “The…

On October 4, 1951, Henrietta Lacks died, but her cells, HeLa, continue to live today. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (2010), discusses Mrs. Lacks life, her cells after she died and how her cells are still living. Success has been reached by advancing medical research of multiple vaccinations, such as a polio vaccine (Skloot, 2010), but Henrietta and her family have been disrespected by not being reimbursed for Henrietta’s contribution to medical research. Henrietta’s…

Twenty-five years ago, two women, brilliant and brave women, gave a landmark speech on the AIDS epidemic at the 1992 Democratic National Convention in New York City. Elizabeth Glaser, who was one of the two women speakers had contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion, passed it on to her children, and would shortly lose her life to it in 1994 (Lucas, S. & Medhurst, M., 2009). Elizabeth, who during her speech, referred to herself as the “strange spokesperson” for such a group – was a well-to-do…

Henrietta Lacks has helped millions of people throughout the years and most people have no idea who this woman was or what her sacrifice did for mankind. In Zimmer (2013) and Radiolab (2010) we briefly learn about Henrietta, who is more famously known for her cancer cells. She was a poor, uneducated black woman from Baltimore who died at the age of 31 in 1951. She may have been an uneducated woman, however, she did no her own body and she knew something was wrong. She, herself was the first…