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Jamie P. Spychalla
Mrs. Gallenberg
AP Language and Composition (6th Hour)
23 December 2014
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
By: Rebecca Skloot
Pages: 551 (Large Print)
Summary: In 1951 an African American woman named Henrietta Lacks walked through the
doors of John Hopkins Hospital. She told her gynecologist Howard Jones that there was
something wrong with her womb. Dr. Jones found a nickel sized mass on her cervix. When
Henrietta began treatment for her cervical cancer, Dr. Lawrence Wharton Jr. (a surgeon at
Hopkins) removed a piece of Henriettas tumor for research. No one had informed Henrietta of
this or even asked if she wanted to be a donor. In the 1950s this was not viewed as unethical.
Patients, who were treated for free were often used as research subjects as a form of payment.
George Geys lab received the piece of Henriettas tumor. The cells thrived in the culture
medium and became the first line of immortal human cells. These cells were called HeLa cells.
HeLa cells contributed to many advancements in science such as the polio vaccine,
chemotherapy, cloning, gene mapping, and in vitro fertilization. Even though Henriettas cells
were well-known in the scientific community very little information was known about Henrietta
or her family until Rebecca Skloot wrote this book.

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Ive spent years staring at the photo wondering what kind of life she led, what happened
to her children, and what shed think about cells from her cervix living on foreverbought, sold,
packaged, and shipped by the trillions to laboratories around the world (18). This passage
displays the authors wonder and curiosity towards the woman behind the HeLa cell line. This
passage evokes a mysterious tone, since there is a side of the HeLa story that has not been told.
The reader wants to flip through the pages quickly and unlock the answers.
Everybody liked Henrietta cause she was a very good condition person, he said. She
just lovey dovey, always smiling, always takin care of us when we come to the house. Even after
she got sick, she never was a person who say I feel bad and Im going to take it out on you. She
wasnt like that, even when she hurtin. But she didnt seem to understand what was going on. She
didnt want to think she was gonna die (146). When Skloot interviewed Henriettas relatives she
attempted to use direct quotes whenever possible. By doing this she could truly capture the
experiences that family members had with Henrietta. Cooties diction or word choice in this
passage demonstrates his admiration for his cousin Henrietta. Through Cooties description the
reader begins to learn that Henrietta was a kind, gentle, and optimistic woman.
The official cause of Henriettas death was terminal uremia: blood poisoning from the
buildup of toxins normally flushed out of the body in urine. The tumors had completely blocked
her urethra, leaving her doctors unable to pass a catheter into bladder to empty it. Tumors the
size of baseballs had nearly replaced her kidneys, bladder, ovaries, and uterus. And her other
organs were so covered in small white tumors it looked as if someone had filled her with pearls
(159). The use of imagery in this passage paints a crisp, vivid picture of what Henriettas body
looked like on the autopsy table. The reader can clearly large white baseballs covering the
majority of her lower organs and tiny pearls speckling the remainder of her organs. By

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illustrating the amount and size of the tumors in her body, the reader can also imagine the
amount of physical pain she must have been in.
Then Marys gaze fell on Henriettas feet, and she gasped: Henriettas toenails were
covered in chipped bright red polish (159-160). Mary Kubicek worked with the HeLa cells in
George Geys lab. She was at the autopsy to collect more samples. The detail of the red polish on
Henriettas feet shocked Mary. This was the moment when Mary realized that Henrietta was
more than simply cells she was an actual person. If this detail had not been included in the book
a feeling of human connection would have been lost.
Several patients had successfully sued their doctors for privacy violations, including one
whose medical records were released without her consent, and others whose doctors either
published photographs or showed videos of them publicly, all without consent. But those patients
had one thing going for them at Henrietta didnt: They were alive. And the dead have no right to
privacyeven if part of them is still alive (356). The use of the dash in this passage provides
emphasis to the final part of the last sentence. If the dash had not been employed the message of
Henrietta not having a right to privacy even though a part of her is still alive would not have
resonated as strongly with the reader.

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Hopkins say they gave them cells away, Lawrence yelled, but they made millions! Its
not fair! Shes the most important person in the world and her family living in poverty. If our
mother so important to science, why cant we get health insurance (287)? Lawrence is
Henriettas oldest son. He said this quote in the first interview that Skloot had with Henriettas
immediate relatives. The entire family was frustrated that the doctors took Henriettas cells
without consent. As a result someone profited off those cells. Lawrence also voiced the irony of
how even though his mothers cells had important contributions to the healthcare field, no one in
her family could afford health insurance. This quote illustrates how it is a part of human nature to
get upset. Anger can occur when someone feels that he or she has been left in the dark.
She used to take care of me when my polio got bad, he told me. She always did say
she wanted to fix it. She couldnt help me cause I had it before she got sick, but she saw how bad
it got. I imagine thats why she used them cells to help get rid of it for other folk. He paused.
Nobody round here never understood how she dead and that thing still livin. Thats where the
mysterys at (146). Henriettas cousin Cootie told Skloot this information when she interviewed
him at his home in Clover, Virginia. He recounted that Henrietta wished she could cure his polio.
In a way Henriettas wish came true, since the use of her cells lead to the development of the
polio vaccine. This illustrates how occasionally in life a wish gets granted in a way that a person
would not have expected.
Regardless, the Lackses arent interested in stopping all HeLa research. I dont want to
cause problems for science, Sonny told me as this book went to press. Dale wouldnt want
that. And besides Im proud of my mother and what she done for science. I just hope Hopkins
and some of the other folks who benefited off her cells will do something to honor her and make
right with the family. (550-551) Sonny Lacks (one of Henriettas sons) explains that his family

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is not going to file a lawsuit to attempt to stop HeLa research. His sister Deborah (Dale), who
passed away from a heart attack, would not have wanted a lawsuit. The family realizes that
Henriettas cells made an enormous contributions to science, but the family would like the
scientific community to honor her. By choosing not to sue, Henriettas family in a way decided to
forgive the doctors, who took Henriettas tissue without her consent. In life by forgiving
someone a person is able to see the bigger picture. As a result the Lackses developed a strong
sense of pride towards Henrietta.

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Henrietta Lackss story arouses the ethical question of whether a persons tissue should
be taken without his or her informed consent. I believe what them doctors did was wrong. They
lied to us for twenty-five years, kept them cells from us, then they gonna say them things donated
by our mother. Them cells was stolen (412-413)!Henrietta Lackss story furthermore illustrates
the injustices that occurred to African Americans during the 1950s. Her story strained Hopkinss
relationship with the African American community. But today when people talk about the
history of Hopkinss relationship with the black community, the story many of them hold up as
the worst offense is that of Henrietta Lacksa black woman whose body, they say, was exploited
by white scientists (286). One shocking element of Henriettas story is that to some degree the
same events could occur today. Today most Americans have their tissue on file somewhere.
When you go to the doctor for a routine blood test or to have a mole removed, when you have an
appendectomy, tonsillectomy, or any other kind of ectomy, the stuff you leave behind doesnt
always get thrown out. Doctors, hospitals, and laboratories keep it. Often indefinitely (527).
Patients should definitely be informed if their tissues will be kept for research purposes. The
patients may not want to profit from their tissues, but they should know what research is going to
be conducted on biological materials taken from their body. For most people knowing if and how
their tissues are being used in research is a far bigger issue than profiting from them. Yet when
this book went to press, storing blood and tissues for research did not legally require informed
consent, because the law governing such things doesnt generally apply to tissue research (530531). There is no doubt that the use and research of human tissues lead to significant
developments. For example, without those tissues, we would have no tests for diseases like
hepatitis and HIV; no vaccines for rabies, smallpox, none of the promising new drugs for

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leukemia, breast cancer, colon cancer (529). However these same tissues could be obtained with
a patients informed consent.

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