Upgrade to the Flash 9 viewer for enhanced content, including
the ability to browse & search through your favorite titles.
Click here to learn more! Teachers: If you'd like a printable
version of this guide, download the PDF attachment at the bottom
of this page. About the Book In 1950, Henrietta Lacks, a young
mother of five children, entered the colored ward of The Johns
Hopkins Hospital to begin treatment for an extremely aggressive
strain of cervical cancer. As she lay on the operating table, a
sample of her cancerous cervical tissue was taken without her
knowledge or consent and given to Dr. George Gey, the head of
tissue research. Gey was conducting experiments in an attempt to
create an immortal line of human cells that could be used in
medical research. Those cells, he hoped, would allow scientists
to unlock the mysteries of cancer, and eventually lead to a cure
for the disease. Until this point, all of Gey’s attempts to grow
a human cell line had ended in failure, but Henrietta’s cells
were different