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The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks / Rebecca Skloot.

Van Pelt Library RC265.6.L24 S55 2011
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Van Pelt Library RC265.6.L24 S55 2011
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Van Pelt Library RC265.6.L24 S55 2011
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Van Pelt Library RC265.6.L24 S55 2011
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Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
Skloot, Rebecca, 1972- author.
Contributor:
Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Lacks, Henrietta, 1920-1951--Health.
Lacks, Henrietta.
Lacks, Henrietta, 1920-1951.
Cancer--Patients--Virginia--Biography.
Cancer.
African American women--History.
African American women.
History.
Human experimentation in medicine--United States--History.
Human experimentation in medicine.
HeLa cells.
Cancer--Research.
Cell culture.
Medical ethics.
Black or African American.
Confidentiality--ethics.
HeLa Cells.
History, 20th Century.
Human Experimentation--ethics.
Prejudice.
Tissue and Organ Procurement--ethics.
Tissue Donors.
Cancer--Patients.
Health.
United States.
Virginia.
Medical Subjects:
Black or African American.
Confidentiality--ethics.
HeLa Cells.
History, 20th Century.
Human Experimentation--ethics.
Prejudice.
Tissue and Organ Procurement--ethics.
Tissue Donors.
United States.
Genre:
Paperback.
Biographies.
History.
Physical Description:
xiv, 381 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm
Place of Publication:
New York : Broadway Paperbacks, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., [2011]
Summary:
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer and viruses; helped lead to in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks is buried in an unmarked grave. Her family did not learn of her "immortality" until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. The story of the Lacks family is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of--From publisher description.
Contents:
A few words about this book
Prologue: the woman in the photograph
Deborah's voice
Part One: Life
The exam 1951
Clover 1920-1942
Diagnosis and treatment 1951
The birth of HeLa 1951
"Blackness be spreadin all inside" 1951
"Lady's on the phone" 1999
The death and life of cell culture 1951
"A miserable specimen" 1951
Turner Station 1999
The other side of the tracks 1999
"The devil of pain itself" 1951
Part Two: Death
The storm 1951
The HeLa factory 1951-1953
Helen Lane 1953-1954
"Too young to remember" 1951-1965
"Spending eternity in the same place" 1999
Illegal, immoral, and deplorable 1954-1966
"Strangest hybrid" 1960-1966
"The most critical time on this earth is now" 1966-1973
The HeLa bomb 1966
Night doctors 2000
"The fame she so richly deserves" 1970-1973
Part Three: Immortality
"It's alive" 1973-1974
"Least they can do" 1975
"Who told you you could sell my spleen?" 1976-1988
Breach of privacy 1980-1985
The secret of immortality 1984-1995
After London 1996-1999
A village of Henriettas 2000
Zakariyya 2000
Hela, goddess of death 2000-2001
"All that's my mother" 2001
The hospital for the Negro insane 2001
The medical records 2001
Soul cleansing 2001
Heavenly bodies 2001
"Nothing to be scared about" 2001
The long road to Clover 2009
Where they are now
About the Henrietta Lacks Foundation
Afterword
Cast of characters
Timeline
Reading group guide.
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 346-366) and index.
Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Nonfiction, 2010; Wellcome Trust Book Prize, 2010.
Local Notes:
Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.
Other Format:
Online verison: Skloot, Rebecca, 1972- Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks.
Online version: Skloot, Rebecca, 1972- Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
ISBN:
9781400052189
1400052181
0307888444
9780307888440
9781613831199
1613831196
9780804190107
0804190100
9780606269544
0606269541
9781400052172
1400052173
OCLC:
659766267

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