The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - He La
Breanna Ruiz
Honors Biology Book Review
December 21st 2012
Choosing a Honors Biology Book, seemed to be a challenging task for me. Even deciding whether or not to take Honor was too. My fear was reading a book, that had too much biology concepts and words I could not fathom. I was walking into this “Book choosing” blindly, but I was lucky enough to chose a book that incorporated the perfect amount of biology and even some humanities. Rebecca Skloot did an amazing job in writing the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
I enjoyed this book very much. Like I said before, one thing I liked what the perfect balance of biology. I believe this is a big factor in choosing a book. Another aspect I love about this book, was how real it was. The “real” was very personal and you could relate to the book. This women, Henrietta Lacks, was used by scientist for her cells and till this day her family has been given nothing compare to how much her cells have done for the world.
Reading this book, I did not face many challenges, the reading was understandable. One challenge I did face, was the breakdown of the book, regarding time. It was broken down into 3 sections: Life, Death, and Immortality. In each section, they all start in 1951 and sometimes 1920. Each section then comes to the year 2000 and 2007. It is somewhat confusing, and trying to keep a timeline gets cluttered. Another challenging part of reading this book, is trying to keep track of the characters, who they are and what significance they have to the book. There was her family which consisted of: her 5 kids, husband(s) cousins, grandparents, etc, and the doctors she saw regularly, and the scientist that used HeLa regularly. My difficulties were very minor and can be resolved by just keeping clean notes.
Rebecca Skloot wrote her book as a journey. I, as the reader, was going through the journey of learning about the Lacks family, organizations cloning HeLa and all the other twist in the book. Rebecca Skloot wrote the story in first person which is one of my favorites, especially with this story. She was determined to get answers and the book courses through half a century. It was not easy to write because first she had to go through interviews with the family and not all accepted, some even threatened her. The fact that this is such a personal book and journey makes it a “page-turner”.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is about a woman, named Henrietta Lacks of course, whom had her cells taken without her permission. Henrietta was born in 1920, the eighth of ten kids. Her childhood was normal. In 1951, her life went from steady to completely up and down. After having her daughter Deborah, Henrietta felt very sick like a knot in her stomach. A little way down the road, she was pregnant again with her next child Joe. She thought that, that may have been the problem, but still had a feeling, it was something worse.
Henrietta then decided to go to the hospital, and she only went to hospitals when she had no other choice. At John Hopkins Hospital, Henrietta found out she had a cervical tumor the size of a nickel. At this point in the book, it goes back to 1924, when Henrietta was only 4 years old, her mother had died and her father is dividing the children amongst family. Henrietta went to Clover, Virginia to live with her grandfather. Her grandfather was also caring for Henrietta’s cousin David also known as “Day”. Day would later on become Henrietta's father of her children and husband.
Henrietta went on with her life knowing that there was a tumor growing at a rapid speed. Her family and her went on and ran the tobacco fields. One aspect of the book that made it even more intriguing was Henrietta herself. She seemed to have such an eventful life, never dull. With having all this on her plate, Henriettas child Elise was put into a mental hospital once Henrietta could no longer tend to her needs. Around that time, George Gey, a scientist claimed that he was close to curing cancer and went on TV shows with a bottle of cells. Little did Henrietta know, they were hers.
As time went on, the doctors told Henrietta that her tumor was gone but Henrietta knew it was still there. Within months, Henrietta went to the hospital and came out with: tumors in more than 2 major organs, kidney failure and a swollen stomach. Henrietta died shortly after that. Gey had been taking samples, but now that she was dead, he couldn't without consent of an autopsy to get the last live cells. Day refused but gave in with pressure from the hospital.
In that time frame, Jonas Stak had a cure for the polio vaccine, he only needed to test it. The polio vaccine was the first vaccine that Henrietta's cells have been tested and proved to work. All of this had been done secretly and no word had gotten out. There was a scare for an unveiling when the name: Henrietta Lakes was released. The 5 kids of Henrietta were not informed of the reason of her death.
Chester Southam, another scientist, was worried that the cells being used could possibly harm the scientist using them. They began abusing the cells to a higher extent than they already were. To test whether it was any harm, they began injecting the cells in cancer patients to see if they could fight it. Some of them grew tumors and died quicker. They then moved onto prisoners of Ohio. Henrietta's cells were just being abused all over. There was ads in magazines to buy her cells and grow at home! Her cells were sent to space twice. All these things being improved because of HeLa and her family still had no clue.
It was not till the mid 70’s they found out. Bobbette, Henrietta’s daughter in law, was having lunch with a friend when one topic led to another and she realized her mother in laws cells were being used in her friend’s lab. This “scandal” was not only going on in Clover but other places like in Seattle. A gentlemen, Moore, was constantly having to fly to a hospital for check-ups and never understood why he couldn't do a check-up in the Washington area. It took him 7 years to realize his doctor had been collecting his bone marrow and made over 3.5 million on him.
Till this day, Henrietta nor her family have received any form of compensation. This topic is one hundred percent debatable. Reading this made me question things so much: Was this humane? Shouldn’t they receive money ? But what if they didn't take it ? Where would we be? I was shocked to find this out in the reading, but It is not illegal what so ever for a doctor to use any liquids, bloods, bone marrow or taken specimens and test them. I have mixed emotions because no one could feel the pain the family does but on the other hand the cells Henrietta had, may literally never come again.
This related to biology in many ways. I learned about Henrietta’s cells and her body and why she grew the tumor, the reason being a genewas turned off. I also learned a lot of humanities as well, and I began to question if I was learning too much. Then as I thought, I realized Biology is the study of life. That was exactly what I was reading about. I had my biology content and my biology mind content to ponder on. I think that this connection was a big one because It was like biology and the book fit perfectly, hand in hand.
I would give this book a 5 star. A majority of the reasons I have touched on:1.The way it is written as a journey 2.The personal connection of family interviews. 3. The “realness” 4. The determination of Rebecca and so much more. I highly recommend it, and not only as a mandatory honors book, but a book to read on your spare time to ponder on biology to a humanity level. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a real, mind blowing, book to read.
Honors Biology Book Review
December 21st 2012
Choosing a Honors Biology Book, seemed to be a challenging task for me. Even deciding whether or not to take Honor was too. My fear was reading a book, that had too much biology concepts and words I could not fathom. I was walking into this “Book choosing” blindly, but I was lucky enough to chose a book that incorporated the perfect amount of biology and even some humanities. Rebecca Skloot did an amazing job in writing the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
I enjoyed this book very much. Like I said before, one thing I liked what the perfect balance of biology. I believe this is a big factor in choosing a book. Another aspect I love about this book, was how real it was. The “real” was very personal and you could relate to the book. This women, Henrietta Lacks, was used by scientist for her cells and till this day her family has been given nothing compare to how much her cells have done for the world.
Reading this book, I did not face many challenges, the reading was understandable. One challenge I did face, was the breakdown of the book, regarding time. It was broken down into 3 sections: Life, Death, and Immortality. In each section, they all start in 1951 and sometimes 1920. Each section then comes to the year 2000 and 2007. It is somewhat confusing, and trying to keep a timeline gets cluttered. Another challenging part of reading this book, is trying to keep track of the characters, who they are and what significance they have to the book. There was her family which consisted of: her 5 kids, husband(s) cousins, grandparents, etc, and the doctors she saw regularly, and the scientist that used HeLa regularly. My difficulties were very minor and can be resolved by just keeping clean notes.
Rebecca Skloot wrote her book as a journey. I, as the reader, was going through the journey of learning about the Lacks family, organizations cloning HeLa and all the other twist in the book. Rebecca Skloot wrote the story in first person which is one of my favorites, especially with this story. She was determined to get answers and the book courses through half a century. It was not easy to write because first she had to go through interviews with the family and not all accepted, some even threatened her. The fact that this is such a personal book and journey makes it a “page-turner”.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is about a woman, named Henrietta Lacks of course, whom had her cells taken without her permission. Henrietta was born in 1920, the eighth of ten kids. Her childhood was normal. In 1951, her life went from steady to completely up and down. After having her daughter Deborah, Henrietta felt very sick like a knot in her stomach. A little way down the road, she was pregnant again with her next child Joe. She thought that, that may have been the problem, but still had a feeling, it was something worse.
Henrietta then decided to go to the hospital, and she only went to hospitals when she had no other choice. At John Hopkins Hospital, Henrietta found out she had a cervical tumor the size of a nickel. At this point in the book, it goes back to 1924, when Henrietta was only 4 years old, her mother had died and her father is dividing the children amongst family. Henrietta went to Clover, Virginia to live with her grandfather. Her grandfather was also caring for Henrietta’s cousin David also known as “Day”. Day would later on become Henrietta's father of her children and husband.
Henrietta went on with her life knowing that there was a tumor growing at a rapid speed. Her family and her went on and ran the tobacco fields. One aspect of the book that made it even more intriguing was Henrietta herself. She seemed to have such an eventful life, never dull. With having all this on her plate, Henriettas child Elise was put into a mental hospital once Henrietta could no longer tend to her needs. Around that time, George Gey, a scientist claimed that he was close to curing cancer and went on TV shows with a bottle of cells. Little did Henrietta know, they were hers.
As time went on, the doctors told Henrietta that her tumor was gone but Henrietta knew it was still there. Within months, Henrietta went to the hospital and came out with: tumors in more than 2 major organs, kidney failure and a swollen stomach. Henrietta died shortly after that. Gey had been taking samples, but now that she was dead, he couldn't without consent of an autopsy to get the last live cells. Day refused but gave in with pressure from the hospital.
In that time frame, Jonas Stak had a cure for the polio vaccine, he only needed to test it. The polio vaccine was the first vaccine that Henrietta's cells have been tested and proved to work. All of this had been done secretly and no word had gotten out. There was a scare for an unveiling when the name: Henrietta Lakes was released. The 5 kids of Henrietta were not informed of the reason of her death.
Chester Southam, another scientist, was worried that the cells being used could possibly harm the scientist using them. They began abusing the cells to a higher extent than they already were. To test whether it was any harm, they began injecting the cells in cancer patients to see if they could fight it. Some of them grew tumors and died quicker. They then moved onto prisoners of Ohio. Henrietta's cells were just being abused all over. There was ads in magazines to buy her cells and grow at home! Her cells were sent to space twice. All these things being improved because of HeLa and her family still had no clue.
It was not till the mid 70’s they found out. Bobbette, Henrietta’s daughter in law, was having lunch with a friend when one topic led to another and she realized her mother in laws cells were being used in her friend’s lab. This “scandal” was not only going on in Clover but other places like in Seattle. A gentlemen, Moore, was constantly having to fly to a hospital for check-ups and never understood why he couldn't do a check-up in the Washington area. It took him 7 years to realize his doctor had been collecting his bone marrow and made over 3.5 million on him.
Till this day, Henrietta nor her family have received any form of compensation. This topic is one hundred percent debatable. Reading this made me question things so much: Was this humane? Shouldn’t they receive money ? But what if they didn't take it ? Where would we be? I was shocked to find this out in the reading, but It is not illegal what so ever for a doctor to use any liquids, bloods, bone marrow or taken specimens and test them. I have mixed emotions because no one could feel the pain the family does but on the other hand the cells Henrietta had, may literally never come again.
This related to biology in many ways. I learned about Henrietta’s cells and her body and why she grew the tumor, the reason being a genewas turned off. I also learned a lot of humanities as well, and I began to question if I was learning too much. Then as I thought, I realized Biology is the study of life. That was exactly what I was reading about. I had my biology content and my biology mind content to ponder on. I think that this connection was a big one because It was like biology and the book fit perfectly, hand in hand.
I would give this book a 5 star. A majority of the reasons I have touched on:1.The way it is written as a journey 2.The personal connection of family interviews. 3. The “realness” 4. The determination of Rebecca and so much more. I highly recommend it, and not only as a mandatory honors book, but a book to read on your spare time to ponder on biology to a humanity level. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a real, mind blowing, book to read.