Cheema_S_Reflectionpaper1TheImmortalLifeofHenriettaLacks

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Simranpreet Cheema November 4, 2022 Reflection Paper #1- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Henrietta Lacks unfortunately passed away on October 4th, 1951, yet her cells are alive and helping the medical community to this day. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot details the controversial story on how Lacks’ cells were taken without her permission and have been used to create a multimillion-dollar industry and revolutionized the medical community is more ways than one (Skloot, 2010). The book details Lack’s childhood, her experience with cancer, and how her cells, nicknamed HeLa after Henrietta Lacks, were obtained and used to change the medical world. The book also details the lives of her family and how they have been impacted. The controversy behind HeLa cells stems from the fact that Henrietta had not given consent for doctors to take her cells and neither had her family. Her cells were being used in laboratories around the world and her family did not find out until years later. This book was assigned for this class because of this controversy and also because of how big of an impact her cells made in medicine. The authors main objectives for writing this book were to tell Henrietta’s story and about the racism and dehumanization she faced. Henrietta had a history of not seeking treatment for her medical issues. Her lack of trust in doctors stemmed from the racism she faced as an African American woman in the 1920s- 1950s, during a time of segregation. I was shocked to learn about the several untreated conditions Henrietta had. Some of the conditions included gonorrhea, syphilis, and a deviated septum (Skloot, 2018). Henrietta, as well as other African Americans during the time were either too afraid to go to doctors or weren’t even given the option. The hospital that Henrietta had to attend, Johns Hopkins, was almost 20 miles away and it was their only option because it was the nearest hospital that would treat African Americans (Skloot, 2010). Reading about Henrietta’s fear of doctors, which everyone should be able to trust, was very saddening to me. Years later,

Simranpreet Cheema November 4, 2022 Reflection Paper #1- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks the discrimination African Americans face in the medical community is still a major issue. I have learned about some of the discrimination African Americans face in the medical field with issues ranging from not being taken seriously about health concerns to not being able to afford medical care. Henrietta was not the first or the last African American person to be mistreated due to racism, and the author did a great job in shedding light on her story. Another aspect of the book I found interesting was the medical aspect and the treatment Henrietta received while she had cancer. After persistent vaginal bleeding and feeling a lump in her cervix, Henrietta had finally decided to go to the hospital. A few days after her visit, she received the diagnosis of cervical cancer from the gynecologist, Howard Jones. Soon after, her treatment began, and it consisted of radium. Radium had been discovered in the 1800s and was used for a variety of things from making watches glow to the treatment of cervical cancer. Radium kills cancer cells but one of the side effects is it can burn the skin off of a person’s body (Skloot, 2010). The way the author described how the treatment affected Henrietta and how much pain she experienced during her last year of life was extremely shocking. Chapter 11 explained in great detail the pain Henrietta was in. Henrietta had been bound by her wrists and ankles to the bed frame because in the past, her convulsing in pain had caused her to fall to the ground many times (Skloot, 2010). This was interesting to learn, and it made me think of how much medicine and treatment has changed. For one, radium isn’t used anymore because of how dangerous it is. Also, if Henrietta had been sick during the present time, I don’t think she would be strapped to the bed, I think she would be heavily sedated because of the amount of pain she was experiencing. Tying back to the racism and discrimination at the time, I wonder if doctors would have provided more comfort for her during her last days if she was Caucasian.

Simranpreet Cheema November 4, 2022 Reflection Paper #1- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks One of the reasons I think we were assigned this book was because of how much of an impact HeLa cells have made in the medical world. HeLa cells are still alive today and there are more cells existing today than there ever were in Henrietta’s body (Skloot, 2018). To me, this is unimaginable that there are that many cells of Henrietta’s being used in laboratories around the world. What’s even more astonishing is how many different ways her cells have helped advance medicine. Over the past few decades HeLa cells have been used to develop drugs for leukemia, influenza, Parkinson’s disease, to research STDs, appendicitis, and to create a vaccine for polio (Skloot, 2010). This is not even close to the total ways HeLa cells have been used. It is unbelievable how one woman’s cells have left such a great impact on medicine, yet she wasn’t given the proper credit. This brings me to the second reason I believe this book was assigned; because of the controversy around how HeLa cells were obtained and the dehumanization of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks did not give consent whatsoever for her cells to be taken for research which is what makes the use of HeLa cells unethical. Learning about how an African American woman unknowingly gave her cells to help with research makes me wonder what would have happened if she was a Caucasian woman or was someone with a higher socioeconomic status. Would she have been given the proper credit? Would her family have been compensated for the use of HeLa cells? There are many what-ifs and questions around HeLa cells that unfortunately will never be answered. Something that frustrated me was the dehumanization of Henrietta Lacks. Evidence of this is seen when Gey and Gey’s assistant, Mary, were performing her autopsy. Mary had glanced at Henrietta’s chipped toenail polish and came to the realization for the first time that the cells they had been using came from a real living woman (Skloot, 2010). The theme of dehumanization is central when it comes to Henrietta’s story. She was merely seen as a source of

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Simranpreet Cheema November 4, 2022 Reflection Paper #1- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks the cells but never as a living woman who was a mother, a daughter, a wife, and much more. What was most bothering, to Deborah especially, was that people around the world mistakenly were referring to her mother as Helen Lane (Skloot, 2010). I think this was especially hard for her family. To them HeLa cells weren’t just cells, they were Henrietta Lacks. A heartbreaking moment that stood out to me was when Henrietta’s children, Deborah and Zakariyya, went to see their mother’s cells for the first time. Deborah held a vial of Henrietta’s cells and spoke of them as they were Henrietta and spoke to them as if she were speaking to her mother saying how she was famous but not one knew it (Skloot, 2010). The dehumanization of Henrietta Lacks was a major theme throughout the book, and I think that paired with the unethical taking of her cells, were reasons this book was assigned for this course. Henrietta Lacks died a painful death from cervical cancer at the age of 31. She was a young African American mother of five who had low socioeconomic standing. Her cells were taken without her knowledge or consent. She wasn’t given proper credit and her family was never compensated for the HeLa cells. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks told the story behind HeLa cells and how they came to be. The author describes the unethical taking of her cells and how they were used to change the medical field. Even though Henrietta’s cells made such a great contribution to medicine, she was often dehumanized and seen merely as just a source of the cells. This book and learning about Henrietta’s story were extremely interesting and left me with many unanswered questions. One of the main questions that comes to mind is how her story would have been different if she was Caucasian instead of African American. The racism that Henrietta faced as an African American woman was and still is a huge problem in the medical field. Even after all the contributions Henrietta made in medicine she wasn’t given the proper credit and this was especially hard on her family. HeLa cells were used to study STDs and

Simranpreet Cheema November 4, 2022 Reflection Paper #1- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks other viruses and to Deborah this seemed like assault on her mother (Skloot, 2010. To others, HeLa cells are merely cells, but to her family, the cells are Henrietta.

Simranpreet Cheema November 4, 2022 Reflection Paper #1- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks References Skloot, R. (2010). The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Broadway Books.

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