Who Told You You Could Sell My Spleen/Breach of Privacy pg.200-214

This section showcased a side-story of people battling for rights over the cells similar to how the Lacks family were.

I feel like John Moore had the right to challenge Dr. Golde over his cells, especially the way Golde was so demanding and kept pressuring Moore to sign contracts.

In this case Golde was not being straightforward with Moore so more became suspicious of Golde, I would be suspicious too.

Golde would non-stop call Moore once he left the hospital. Golde said things like "stop being a pain and sign the form". Which in my opinion sounded way too demanding, like something was in it for him that he needed permission of Moore's cells.

Once I read the part where Golde had devoted seven years to develop a cell line called Mo after Moore surgery, made me feel like it would be hard to trust doctors.

John Moore said that he "felt like a piece of meat". I totally agree, I would've felt the same way because it is dehumanizing.

There was a controversy as the news spread about  ownership of Moore's cells. Golde and Moore ended up going to court with a result of Moore losing.

Ironically the judge said that no one complained over the HeLa cells so it's only fit that you shouldn't complain either.

During the Breach of Privacy chapter it gives a follow up of how Deborah and Zakariyya are doing. Deborah saw Gold's book which talked about Henrietta Lacks and her medical records.

It's so sad that Henrietta's medical records were just passed around and Henrietta's kids don't even know much about her and her death.

                                               

It's Alive/Least They Can Do pg.185-199

I really hate how uneducated the Lacks family were even when they were asked for samples of blood from Hsu. They didn't know what they were getting themselves into. I don't blame them for being uneducated but it seems so sketchy to donate your blood without knowing what they're doing with it. They only assumed that they were getting treated for cancer because of the risk of dying like how Henrietta died.

I like how they believe in superstitions like it was Henrietta who caused all the tragedies like burning down Rogers house in Oakland, it destroyed all the documents of HeLa cells and Henrietta's family.

I like Sonny's point of view of how he didn't mind Henrietta's cells were being used for medicine and research, "Long as it's helpin somebody".

I really enjoy the way you wrote the dialogue of this book. It seems so raw as if I could imagine the person talking in my head and how pictures are provided so we know how the family looks like.

Towards this section this was when the Lacks family started taking interest of Hopkins hospital and George Gey. They saw the profit of Henrietta's cells rising and rising each year.

Its amazing that when this book was published that one vial of HeLa cells were $256 each. If only the Lacks family knew this, they would've been rich! "HeLa is one of the most popular cell lines in the world".

I cringe at the fact that the only way the Lacks family knew how to attempt of getting a cut from HeLa cells was making handouts and gave them to customers at Lawrence's store. I'm sorry but that's probably the worst way to advertise.

If only the Lacks family knew how to sue and they should've hired a lawyer. But then again, I don't blame them because they weren't asked for consent so George Gey took Henrietta's cells illegally and in an inhumane way.

The Fame She So Richly Deserves/It's Alive pg.170-184

These two chapters would occur during the 70's particularly following the death of George Gey. George Gey died on November 8, 1970 to pancreatic cancer. Since there was rare to no pancreatic cancer research, Gey wanted to be one of the first to offer his tumor cells to provide for it's research. He had hopes that his cells would be immortal like Henrietta's. This wasn't the case, Gey's tumor cells died shortly after.

After Gey's death, President Richard Nixon designated 1.5 Billion dollars into cancer research, stating that cancer would be cured within the next 5 years. This put so much pressure on the scientists and doctors rushing to find a cure.

There was also controversy to where the HeLa cells came from. Henrietta cells were so famous because she'd been dead for so long but it invade other cell cultures and kept multiplying. It was all over the tabloids at the time. There were rumors saying her name was Helen Larsen, Helen Lane,Helga Larsen, Heather Langtree, and actress Hedy Lamarr.

J Douglass would publish a letter to the journal Nature saying and I quote, "all those women should "withdraw as gracefully as they can," because he'd received a letter from Howard W. Jones that left "no doubt that HeLa cells were named after Henrietta Lacks."(Skloot 176)

This takes us to Part Three of the book "Immortality". Bobbette Lacks was in Baltimore for the week staying at her friend Gardenia's house. Bobbette was talking to Gardenia's brother-in-law, who ironically worked at the Baltimore City Hospital, for the National Cancer Institute.

This was the first introduction to the Lacks family that Henrietta's cells were still alive and were being used in labs for cancer research without the Lacks' family consent. Gardenia's brother-in-law said "I've been working with these cells in my lab for years, and I just read this article that said they came from a woman named Henrietta Lacks". (Skloot 180)

Soon after, the Lacks family were a target for scientists and doctors. They wanted to know whether or not any other relative of Henrietta had immortal cells or something of that significance. This led Dr.Hsu to getting them to draw blood for "cancer research".

                                   

Night Doctors pg.155-169

Finally we find out information about Henrietta's children during a more relevant date! Rebecca Skloot planned and made an agreement to meet up with the Lacks family.

Rebecca first met Sonny Lacks in the lobby of a Holiday Inn in Baltimore. On that New Years day, Sonny drove Rebecca to their house and explaining how Rebecca was so hard-headed and never gave up on talking to the family in an admiral way.

Next Rebecca would meet Lawrence, who also seemed like a nice person, offering Rebecca pork and eggs.  Lawrence was curious about what kind of discoveries they made with Henrietta's cells because no one had them anything.

 Rebecca told them that through HeLa, scientists developed corneas, polio vaccine, cancer treatment, and more. Lawrence was astounded and kept saying it was a miracle. Lawrence and Sonny don't remember Henrietta much from their childhood, only the strict parts."I blacked it out of my mind because of the sadness and hurting". (Skloot 161)

 At this point the two sons said that Rebecca passed the test and all of the sudden she was able to meet and speak with Day Lacks(Henrietta's Husband) and Bobbette Lacks(Lawrence's Wife).

Day didn't seem like he was an angry person but rather calm. Bobbette seemed annoyed of the publicity of the HeLa cells and kind of talked to Rebecca like she was just any other news reporter. Day and most of the family suffered from health problems. But the whole family agreed not to get treatment from the hospital or else they would steal their cells again. Which I totally agree that Johns Hopkins Hospital would.

Then the subject about night doctors was brought up from Bobbette saying that doctors would kidnap African Americans during the night to perform experiment with drugs and incisions without any anestegia. I thought that was disgusting and I can't believe that it was true. Then they talked about the Ku Klux Klan abducting African Americans and killings during the night.

Lastly Day would make a remark that I thought was important towards the whole book. "What really would upset Henrietta is the fact that Dr.Gey never told the family anything -we didn't know nothing about those cells and he didn't care. That just rubbed us the wrong way. I just kept asking everybody, 'Why didn't they say anything to the family?' They knew how to contact us! If Dr. Gey wasn't dead, I think I would have killed him myself." (Skloot 169)

Until next time.............

The Most Critical Time/The HeLa Bomb pg.140-154

Finally revisiting the Lacks family after a couple chapters of genes and experimentation. Majority of the Lacks children were fine except for Crazy Joe and Deborah.

Lawrence owned a store in the basement of the old townhouse, Sonny graduated from high school, joined the air force, then honourably discharged.

Joe did not live a great lifestyle. He got crazier over the years, always getting into trouble and fighting. He had stabbed a man and faced 15 years in prison. Crazy Joe would find Islam and changed his name to Zakariyya Bari Abdul Rahman.

I feel so bad for Deborah... She seemed to always face adversity... She got pregnant in her junior year of high school. Cheetah(Deborah's Husband) was an alcoholic and would beat up Deborah. She would later leave Cheetah and would find refuge at her Father's house. Deborah struggled being a single mother while working two jobs.

In September 1966 geneticist Stanley Gartler and George Gey found a "technical problem" in their field. They would soon discuss the future of cell culture. "The room buzzed with excitement as everyone talked about cell cloning and hybrids, mapping human genes, and using cultures to cure cancer".(Skloot 152)

Gartler found an amazing discovery of how 18 of the most commonly used cell cultures had one thing in common. They all contained the same genetic marker called "glucose-6phosphate dehydrogenase-A (G6PD-A)". (Skloot 152)

The scientists made the breakthrough that since the HeLa cells came from a black woman that he found the answer for the problem. All the cell cultures are "all HeLa cell contaminants".

In this case, HeLa cells contaminated other cell cultures and scientists would soon enough had been growing and regrowing HeLa cells this whole time. The assumption occurred that a cure for cancer might not even exist....

                             

Illegal,Immoral, and Deplorable/Strangest Hybrid pg.125-139

These two chapters were kind of a blow your mind sort of chapters. It introduced scientists like Chester Southam. Chester Southam made a huge impact on cancer development and treatment but I didn't like how he did it.

Southam would perform cancer research on cancer patients by injecting HeLa cells into their arms and examined them for weeks. Although, the cancer patients didn't give him any consent to perform these experiments.

Southam would also look for volunteers to perform cancer research on. The Ohio prison inmates decided to volunteer for cancer research and development. 65 inmates would be injected with HeLa cells into their arms and tumors would grow.

 The prisoners were asked why they volunteered and they answered "I believe the wrong that I have done, in the eyes of society, this might make a right on it." (Skloot 129)

This chapter introduced me to the Nuremberg Code, where Nazi doctors were sentenced to death on August 20, 1947 and hung because of the inhumane experiments they would do on Jews.

There was a huge controversy relating Southam's experiments to the Nuremburg trials especially because he would perform these experiments without the patients consent.

It really pisses me off that there was a trend in scientists and doctors that back then they could get away with performing experiments on a live human body and taking cells.

Southam claimed that he had no idea of the Nuremberg Code even though it occurred about a decade prior. Southam would eventually be found guilty but was only penalized by being suspended of his license for a year.

I don't agree and I believe his punishment should have been more severe. If I found out he was injecting cancer cells into me for a mere experiment I would turn him down in a heartbeat! I also don't like how scientists would joke about Henrietta's cells so casually.

                                 

Too Young to Remember/Spending Eternity in the Same Place pg.110-124

This will be my first attempt at blogging so forgive me for my lack of knowledge about blogging. For each blog post I'm gonna be reading 15 pages each post starting from chapter 15 in the Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks. Alright, here are my thoughts. Just when you think the story couldn't get much worse, it does. After Henrietta's death funeral most of Lacks family caught the Tuberculosis disease. There is an introduction of two new villains by the name of Ethel and Galen. I swear to god she is a cruel bitch. She was supposedly seeing Day and "replaced" Henrietta as a mother figure. Every morning Ethel would feed the kids a cold biscuit that was supposed to last them until dinner! That's crazy! Ethel tried to take out he pent up hate for Henrietta on her kids. She wouldn't just starve them, Ethel would brutally beat them down. Sonny was sent to the hospital because Ethel beat him with an extension chord. Galen was supposedly Ethel's husband but he would be a pervert to Deborah(Henrietta's daughter). He would try to sexually assault her, even in front of the family. It got so bad to the point where Galen invited Deborah over his house, showering her with gifts and laid in his bed naked, and tried to force sex on her. How will the Lacks children end up? Until next blog post!