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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Teenaz Ralhan

Mrs. Henson

APLAC- 6th

17th September 2012

Summer Reading Essay- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

I. Introduction and Context:-

She is the reason that so many individuals survived. Her cells saved billions of lives the world over. Yet, they failed to save her. Researchers refer to her cells as HeLa, they do not realise that she was a real person- Henrietta Lacks. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot narrates the story of a woman of African origin-Henrietta Lacks, in Baltimore, Maryland. Lacks is a mother of five and leads a regular and happy life with her husband, children, and other relatives. This perfect world suddenly disappears when she realises that she has a knot in her womb. She goes to John Hopkins Hospital for treatment. She has cervical cancer. The hospital takes advantage of the situation and of her colour. They use her cancerous cells for research. They repeatedly expose her to high amounts of radiation in order to extract more cells. Years after her inevitable death, her family c to know about HeLa. They are devastated. Through her portrayal of the impact that the revelation of HeLa had on the Lacks family and the fact that the doctors at John Hopkins repeatedly exposed Henrietta to radiation in order to take cancerous cells from her body, Rebecca Skloot brings two questions to mind- Does science murder to dissect? Is taking someone’s cells without their permission ethical?

II. The Author’s Background

Rebecca Skloot is a science writer. She has written articles for the New York Times Magazine, O, The Oprah Magazine, and Discover, on topics like goldfish surgery, tissue ownership rights, race and medicine, and food politics (Skloot www). Skloot attained her Bachelor’s degree in biological sciences, and her MFA in creative non-fiction writing (Skloot, www). Being a graduate in biological sciences, Skloot would have a thorough understanding of the main argument presented by the story of

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