Rebecca begins exploring the controversy over profiting from another person’s tissues, which quickly made its way into the court system, but did little to help the Lackses. Eventually Hopkins contacts them to study their own genetic information, but never explains why the fearful Deborah believes that they are testing to see if she will die like her mother. Rebecca recounts when the family first found out about HeLa, and describes their shock and confusion. In the present day, Rebecca finally gets to meet Lawrence, Sonny, and Day, all of whom are furious over the fact that others are profiting off of Henrietta’s cells while they live in poverty. In prison, he converts to Islam and changes his name to Zakariyya. Henrietta’s children grow up and begin having children of their own Joe, however, is convicted for murder and sentenced to fifteen years. As this conflict rages, HeLa becomes evermore widespread, contaminating hundreds of other cell lines. This case started a debate over questions of medical consent. We learn more about unethical research practices of the day, as emblemized by Chester Southam, who injected HeLa and other cancer cells into patients without their knowledge, and was eventually reprimanded by the New York Medical Board of Regents. Rebecca continues to explore Henrietta’s heritage, especially noticing that though her family is descended from white plantation owners and enslaved women, the clan is strictly divided into white Lackses and black Lackses, who never mix. Without their mother, Henrietta’s children suffer under an abusive cousin-especially Henrietta’s youngest child, Joe, who quickly becomes a juvenile delinquent. Journalists begin wondering about Henrietta’s identity, and eventually an article is written about her using the wrong name: Helen Lane. Scientists begin using the cells to study viruses, human genetics, drugs, environmental stress, and vitamins. HeLa continues to thrive, aiding researchers in creating a polio vaccine, and leading to the first ever operation to mass-produce human cells. Her family buries her in an unmarked grave. The doctors at Hopkins pressure Day into allowing them to autopsy her in order to study her cells further. Meanwhile in September 1951, Henrietta is in agony, and she dies the next month. Still, though, the Lackses refuse to meet with Skloot. Rebecca travels to Baltimore, where the Lackses live, and encounters Courtney Speed, a local woman determined to publicize Henrietta’s story. Henrietta, meanwhile, gets worse and worse, until the doctors pronounce her tumor inoperable. Back in 1951, George Gey begins publicizing HeLa, and sending it to many different researchers around the world, but he does not make any financial profit from this. Rebecca begins calling Deborah every day, as well as two of her brothers, Lawrence and Sonny. We jump to 1999, when Rebecca begins attempting to contact the Lackses she is cautiously aided by Professor Roland Pattillo, an academic at Morehouse College who knows the Lackses, but fears that Rebecca is another white journalist out to exploit them. As her cells flourish, however, Henrietta continues to decline. Then Gey is given a sample of Henrietta’s cervical tissue by her doctors (and without her knowledge), and her cancer cells begin growing at an extraordinary rate. Doctors such as George Gey (who worked at Hopkins) were seeking to create a breed of human cells that could regenerate eternally-an immortal cell line-but were having no success. Rebecca explains more about cervical cancer research and treatments in the 1950s, before moving on to the practice of cell culturing, which was in its early stages at this time. The two first had a daughter named Elsie, who was mentally impaired, and who eventually died in an asylum called Crownsville. She then traces Henrietta’s lineage back to the town of Clover, VA, explaining how Henrietta met her husband (and cousin), Day. Skloot explains that Johns Hopkins was one of the best hospitals in the country, but that it subscribed to deeply racist practices when it came to treating African Americans. Rebecca narrates Henrietta’s first visits to Johns Hopkins hospital, where doctors first tell her she is fine, but eventually diagnose her with cervical cancer and treat her with radiation. Rebecca then introduces Deborah Lacks, Henrietta’s daughter, and a key figure in Rebecca’s quest. Rebecca explains that HeLa made possible some of the most important discoveries of the 21st century, but that we know little about the woman behind them. A journalist named Rebecca Skloot recounts learning about an African American woman named Henrietta Lacks, who died in 1951 of cervical cancer, but whose cancerous cells became the first immortal human cell line, called HeLa.
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