Henrietta Lacks Legacy

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How Do You Build A Legacy? We all want to be recognized as more than the merely ordinary and to be distinguished as one who had truly made a difference in society. The name is Henrietta Lacks. However, the world knows her HeLa or Helen Lane. In 1951, she was just a poor black woman diagnosed with cervical cancer, and was treated at the John Hopkins hospital. Then pieces of the tumor cells were taken out of her without her knowledge or consent, and analyzed by Doctor George Gey. Months later, she dies of cervical cancer in the hospital, but the stolen cells continues to survive and grows indefinitely in a laboratory. It became known as HeLa, the first immortal human cell, and became a critical tool in science and medicine, vital for the development…show more content…
She researched all she could about her mother, from scientific articles, to browsing for more on the internet and eventually discover the medical records of her mother that recorded her health in her last days of life. Deborah Lacks’ determination led her and her family closer to understanding the Story of Henrietta Lacks. She attempts to ask her family members. All David Lacks, father of Deborah, recalled was that they “started doing treatments, then her stomach turned black as coal and she died” (Skloot 186). Little was specifically remembered about what has happened to her never less the whole stealing of cells. Also, Deborah were interviewed for a BBC film about her mother, letting the story of her other, the woman behind the cell to spread. Deborah also contributes to the creation of the Henrietta Lacks’ health history Museum Foundation Inc., to let her and others to know more about her mother. She wonders abut what her favorite hymn, color and game was, other than all the science behind her cells (223). Deborah also spoke at an event recognizing the woman behind the immortal cells at the HeLa Cancer control symposium. She spoke about her mother, and finally cleared her mother’s name to the world, getting the recognition that it deserves. The name is Henrietta Lacks, the woman behind the…show more content…
Rebecca Skloot’s book revealed things other than the cells, but also included the most important part, the women behind it all and her family. “Only people that can get any good from my mother cells is the people that got money, and whoever selling them cells — they get rich off our mother and we got nothing,” said Zakariyya (247). Brother of Deborah, Zakariyya, he grew up without a mother to care for him and love him. Along with his abusive childhood, which caused him to grow up to be an angry and violent man. This is just another tragedy because of cancer. It was never really about the money and becoming rich that Deborah was after, though it was unfair that the family of the women behind the multibillion cell can’t even afford simple health insurance. Deborah just wanted to know about the mother she barely had, and to get to know her as if she was still alive. So she sets out to explore her mother’s life, all towards creating an everlasting

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