Book Review: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Essay

still imagine disassociate of your consistency be taken away from youscary right on? That is exactly what happened to Henrietta Lacks. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot explains who Henrietta was, where she came from, the pull downts that put her in the hospital and at long last killed her, and the legacy she has left in the human beings of science. Henrietta Lacks was born Loretta Pleasant in Roanoke, Virginia on August 1, 1920. No one knows how she became Henrietta. Her mother, Eliza Lacks Pleasant, died speckle giving wear. Henriettas father, Johnny Pleasant, did not exact the patience to raise cristal children, so he took them entirely to put prohibited in Clover, Virginia. Henrietta lived with her grandfather and her cousin, David Lacks. Henrietta and David had shared a bedroom since she was four, so it was not a surprise when they started having children together. Henrietta had five children in all Lawrence, Elsie, Sonny, Deborah, Joe (who la ter changed his name to Zakariyya). A hebdomad before chequering she was pregnant with Joe, Henrietta had told well-nigh of her cousins that she had a knot inside her. around five months aft(prenominal) giving birth she finally went to her doctor.The doctor told her she had better go to the John Hopkins gynecology clinic. Howard Jones said he had seen easily a thousand cervical cancer lesions, nevertheless he had neer seen anything like what was inside Henrietta. Dr. Jones cut a small sample and sent it to the pathology laboratory where Mary Kubicek handled the now famous cells. She tagged the culture HeLa for Henrietta and Lacks and then carried them to an incubator room. quaternion days later, George Gey, the leader of the lab, noticed the cells were outgrowth with mythological intensity and doubled their rime each twenty-four hours. George Gey told a some of his closest colleges nearly the magnificent adjust and gave them some cultures of the eternal cells. Henrie tta never knew that her cells had been extracted and lay in labs. She just went on existent her purport. By September 1951, Henriettas body was overtaken with tumors. They had grown on her diaphragm, bladder, and liver. They had blocked her intestines and do her stomach swell. Henrietta knew she would die soon, and she did on October 4, 1951.Henriettas family did not find out astir(predicate) her cells being in almost every lab until 1973. Lawrences wife, Bobbette, effectuate that her mother-in-laws cells were taken from a friends brother who had recently conducted an experiment with them. Lawrence called Hopkins, but they said that there was no bring down of enduring by the name of Henrietta Lacks. Lawrence, Sonny, Deborah, and Zakariyya assay to avoid all reporters after that. Deborah curiously had trouble with what little knowledge she had active her mothers cells. She constantly had apprehension attacks and got hives when talking active her mother. adept reporter, Rebecca Skloot, continuously asked Deborah to talk, and even sotually she gave in. Deborah and Skloot spent a lot of time together after that. They went to the home-house where Henrietta grew up.Rebecca took Deborah and Zakariyya to meet with a lab technician to learn more about their mothers cells. That was the first time Zakariyya talked openly about his mother and did not get enraged. Rebecca Skloot had promised Deborah devil things to see her mothers cells and see to it out what happened to Henriettas sister, Elsie. Rebecca and Deborah went on a road trip to find out any set forthation they could about Elsie. Elsie had been admitted to the infirmary for the Negro Insane because she had epilepsy and was classified as mentally retarded. Rebecca and Deborah had become good friends bandage they were investigating for information about Henrietta. Rebecca was deva verbalize when she knowing Deborah passed away.The authors function in writing this contain was to in inform and e xplain from whom the mankind famous HeLa cells originated from. Rebecca Skloot stated in the book that when she first hear of the HeLa cells, she was obsessed with them. She intended the book to be seen and read by everyone interested in science. Skloot wrote at times very formally and sometimes very informally. She wanted to start how Henrietta and her family really communicated. This book really do me start to think. In the wonderful world of science, not always do stack actually look behind the fulgent facts to see where (or who) the information came from and what lengths it took to gain it.after reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks I will now think what race had to do to gain the information Im learning about. I would decidedly recommend this book to everyone. I found it very intriguing and it kept my attention. in that respect were a total of twenty vii photographs in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. each single photo told a layer and helped to explain t he written words even more vibrantly. Rebecca Skloot also told stories within the puffy one. She told about Henriettas hard life before she passed away. Skloot explained the facts behind why and how she died. The afterword of the book was very factual and had little to do with Henrietta Lacks.It answers the questions Wasnt it illegal for doctors to take Henriettas cells without her knowledge?and Dont doctors have to tell you when they use your cells in enquiry?. The answer to both questions is no, and the afterword goes into detail about the medical related laws that have been passed for patient privacy and such. Rebecca Skloots final purpose to write The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was, I believe, to tell a story of a womans incredible part in science and history, which wasnt even her choice. Henriettas story deserved to be told, and Rebecca Skloot did an amazing job telling us about the incredibly brave and immortal Henrietta Lacks.