Though Henrietta had rare, aggressive cells that made lab research possible, the same thing can and has happened to others. Lesson 3: Henrietta’s cells have raised ethical questions regarding cell donation in the world today. Slave owners would tell stories of “night doctors” that kidnap black people for experiments in an effort to keep them from running away. One example of this was the Tuskegee syphilis experiments of the 1930s, where scientists allowed uneducated poor black men to suffer from syphilis and go untreated so they could study the disease.Įven though the history of the exploitation of black people by scientists is documented, there were also many fictional stories that circulated among black Americans. She learned they had a general mistrust in medicine because of the medical community’s past exploitation of black Americans. Though she was finally able to talk to some of the family, getting information uphill battle because they didn’t trust her to tell the story. When writing the book, the author reached out to her family, but they were very reluctant to talk to her. Decades later, the family was finally able to learn about Henrietta’s condition and the contribution she had made to the field of medicine without even knowing. Many years later, her daughter got the story from the doctors who were on her case. The children never knew what happened to their mother, as their father wouldn’t talk about it. Her husband Day had to work two jobs, and her oldest son had to leave school to raise his younger siblings.
After her death, her family struggled to make ends meet. Though her cells were known and produced around the world, Henrietta and her family were largely forgotten. Lesson 2: Though her cells were known around the world, most people knew nothing about Henrietta or her family, until recently. Soon, Gey shared the news of his “immortal human cells,” making them an instant celebrity. The aggressive nature of the cancer cells enabled them to thrive and survive outside a body. Not only were they still alive, but they were doubling every 24 hours, faster than the human body. When they put Henrietta’s cancer cells, or “HeLa,” in the roller-tube, they were amazed when it actually worked. George Gey discovered the roller-tube culturing technique that involved a rotating cylinder that kept the cells in motion. It was at this time that scientists were looking for ways to keep human cells alive outside the body to research diseases.
They left her badly burned and were sadly ineffective. So she started receiving treatment, which at the time involved hours of excruciating exposure to radium. She was 30 when she walked into the coloreds-only exam room at John’s Hopkins complaining of a lump on her cervix.ĭoctors biopsied the lump, and a while later, the diagnosis came back as stage I cervical cancer. She married young and soon was a mother of five young children. Henrietta was a poor black farmer who was born in Virginia in 1920.
The immortal life of henrietta lacks quotes pdf#
If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.ĭownload PDF Lesson 1: Henrietta died tragically of cancer when she was young, but her cells still live on today. Let’s hop on the Magic School Bus and jump back in time and into the life and cells of Henrietta Lacks!