Rebecca St. James

The story of Henrietta Lacks is truly a unique story, grounded in family, hardship and scientific discovery. The story behind the “HeLa” cells and the family behind the woman who had “immortal cells” is very dramatic. Henrietta Lacks, a thirty-one year old black woman is diagnosed with cervical cancer that rapidly spreads. Stricken by poverty, Lacks family is unable to financially support her in treatment. The cancer soon overtakes Lacks body, and she dies, leaving behind her husband and five…

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…

Writers are constantly telling other people’s stories, arguably it is the best way to get inspiration. Using another person’s experience or history allows a point of view to come through that the author never would have had on their own. The way that this is done however dramatically changes with the style they prefer, therefore changing how it’s received. An author who makes the story their own may receive more backlash than someone who allows it to remain that of the teller. They also might…

The Immortal LIfe of Henrietta Lacks is the story of cell research developing and the story of Rebecca Skloot and Deborah Lacks learning about the elusive Henrietta Lacks. It is a true story written by Skloot, and was eventually published February 10, 2010. The author also does a good job of joining the scientific aspects of Henrietta’s life while still holding on to the social aspects of the book, as well as making it easy to read for people who don’t know much about the going ons of science.…

Rosalind Franklin began her work as soon as possible and continued working until she was truly physically unable to. In 1956, age 36, Franklin discovered that she had ovarian cancer (Biography “Rosalind Franklin”). How she came to develop this cancer is debated, whether is was due to the radiation of working with x-ray crystallography (Bagley) or possibly that it was the wicked irony of the gene being in her own DNA due to the fact that Ashkenazi Jews have a “hereditary predisposition to ovarian…

than three, and be specific.) I take great pride in being acknowledged in a recent Nature scientific journal publication entitled “Epigenetic Editing of Ascl1 gene in Neural Stem Cells by Optogenetics,” which stems from my work as a research intern at the Indiana University School of Medicine. I am also proud to have had the opportunity to present my research work as a semi-finalist at the Armed Forces-sponsored Southern California Junior Sciences and Humanities Symposium. Last but not least, I…

investigators that other human volunteers suffered similar reactions. Only fewer than 6% were found to have adverse events associated with the given gene therapy at the time, this was collected slightly after Gelsinger’s passing. The lead researcher, James Wilson, did not disclose the fact that this clinical trial was part…

The Secret Life of Henrietta Lacks was a book written by Rebecca Skloot in 2010. I had never heard of this book before I started to take Medically Terminology 1 and my teacher told us that we would be reading it over the course of the semester. I was very surprised that I had never heard of it before considering I work in a library. I enjoy reading books so when I learned that we would be reading a book I hadn't read I was excited to read it. The Secret Life of Henrietta Lacks was about an…

The Ethical Reflection of Henrietta Lack’s Story On October 4, 1951, a lady by the name of Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer and her cells were acquired for the purpose of research. Dr. Guy, director, and researcher at Johns Hopkins Hospital went onto live television proposing to the public that he had found a means to eradicate cancer through a recent study of cancerous cells (Curtis, 2012). It was clear that medical research had begun to soar, but the balance between the exploration of…

in order to use them and attempt to grow them in a lab. Taking cells from unexplainable diagnostics without the patient’s consent for research purposes is beneficial for the medical use by future generations, but is immoral. In the story told by Rebecca Skloot, she unravels the deeper aspect of Henrietta’s…