Rebecca Skloot

Poverty played a huge role in the Lacks family. Due to poverty, the majority of the Lacks family was uneducated, so for many years, the family was unable to take justice upon the people who decided to take Henrietta's cells without permission and turning it into a profitable business; since they knew very little about what was actually going on and what the HeLa cells meant for the rest of the world. Further expanding on the idea that since Henrietta's family was not educated enough due to…

Henrietta Lack’s cells have a long and rich history that span the study of genetics. She has been a part of thousands of research projects with the hope that her cells can make a difference. One project that has used her cells in its work is the Human Genome Project. This multinational, government driven idea wanted to discover the inner-workings of the human body and how humans differ from each other by sequencing the human genome. The genome is the “instruction manual” that is “written” in the…

Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman born on August 1, 1920 in Southern Virginia. She is best known as the woman with the immortal cells. She was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer in 1951 at John Hopkins University by Dr. George Gey. She died in 1951 at the age of 31. During her cervical-cancer biopsy Dr. Gey snipped samples from her tissue without the consent of the patient to run studies on the cells that were grown from the tumor. That is how Henrietta Lacks made one of the…

1. HeLa cells are a type of immortal cell derived from the cervical cancer of Henrietta Lacks. These were the first type of human cell that were found to not die in a lab culture and have been used in creating many different vaccines. Theses cell are still used all around the world in the development of vaccines and in other type of research such such as HIV and AIDS. HeLa cells also have become surround by controversy for the fact that they were first taken from Lacks and used in lab…

Throughout chapter 27 the readers gain more of an understanding of the science behind Henrietta's cells. Most importantly there was the discovery of the sexually transmitted disease called Human Papillomavirus (HPV). What HPV does is turn of a gene that is a tumor suppressor and the HeLa cells tested positive for this HPV virus. While this discovery provided some light on the mystery of Henritta's cause of cancer, it still could not lead to any clues on the uniqueness of Henrietta’s cells. Her…

after they learn of all possible consequences and results. Not only is it unlawful to do something to a person without their knowledge, it is also unethical. People have a moral right to their body. In “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot, the readers learn about how things were back then, and about the many cases debating about the property of a person’s body. In my personal research, I found an article that further elaborates on the issues and rules of informed consent, and…

the appropriate health decisions. Two of the biggest influences that can determine a person’s health literacy are culture and education. In “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Anne Fadiman and “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot, there are many displays of how the roles of culture and education impact the lives of these two ethnic families. In “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” the effects of culture and education has an adverse effect on Lia Lee’s, the…

Scriptural Response Two In this paper, I will write a scriptural response to the assigned reading of the NIV Study Bible and the Wiersbe Bible Commentary. I will write my response to chapters twelve through fifty of Genesis and chapters fourteen through thirty-eight of the Wiersbe Bible Commentary. Main Characters Abram and his wife Sarai (later God renames them Abraham and Sarah) Sarai is also Abrams half-sister, daughter of Abram father, are two of the main characters. They could be describe…

Compare and contrast the writers’ presentation of women The presentation of women is a prominent theme in both Rebecca and Birthday letters. In Rebecca the narrator is shown as chained by the gender roles of her society. Written in 1938 Daphne Du Maurier breaks the conventions of society by creating a character and a story line that was deemed socially unacceptable at the time. In contrast Birthday Letters shows the biased interpretation of Ted Hugh’s and Sylvia Plath’s relationship which led…

With her religion being a strong factor in her life so early on, her parents made sure to bring her up virtuous as Catholics could be. Monica’s parents were so devoted to her religious upbringing; they hired a woman servant that helped to rear her in the Catholic Church’s way. As Monica grew older, she was maturing into the woman that her parents had envisioned. Rebekah, born of Jewish descent, became the wife of Isaac. She was chosen by a servant through a sign from God. Should she give water…