The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Des Moines, IA US
April 2, 2015

Registration


There is no cost to attend and registration is not required. 
 

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance.

image

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew. It’s a story 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’re made of.

Soon to be made into an HBO movie by Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball, this New York Times bestseller takes readers on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers filled with HeLa cells, from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia, to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew. It’s a story 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’re made of.

Winner of several awards, including the 2010 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Nonfiction, the 2010 Welcome Trust Book Prize, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Award for Excellence in Science Writing, the 2011 Audie Award for Best Non-Fiction Audiobook, and a Medical Journalists’ Association Open Book Award, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was featured on over 60 critics’ best of the year lists.

 

Target Audience

DMU students, faculty, staff, and alumni. 

Keynote Speaker

Image result for rebecca skloot

Rebecca Skloot 

Ms. Skloot is the author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Her award winning science writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine; O, The Oprah Magazine; Discover; and many other publications. She specializes in narrative science writing and has explored a wide range of topics, including goldfish surgery, tissue ownership rights, race and medicine, food politics, and packs of wild dogs in Manhattan. She has worked as a correspondent for WNYC’s Radiolab and PBS’s Nova ScienceNOW. She and her father, Floyd Skloot, co-edited The Best American Science Writing 2011. You can read a selection of Rebecca Skloot’s magazine writing on the Articles page of this site.

Skloot lives in Chicago, where she is currently working on a new book about humans, animals, science, and ethics, a topic near and dear to her: before becoming a science writer, Skloot spent more than a decade working as a veterinary technician in settings ranging from animal shelters to private practices, veterinary schools and research labs. Those experiences, and the questions they prompted, are at the center of her next book, which you can read more about here and here. Skloot is also an avid knitter, a family tradition passed on from her mother, Betsy McCarthy, a professional knitter whose story was featured on Your Life Calling With Jane Pauley

Moderator

Angela L. Walker Franklin, PhD
President and CEO, Des Moines University
Biography

Panelists

Jeffrey Gray, PhD
Vice President for Research, Des Moines University
Biography

Deborah Turner, MD, FACOG
Gynecologic Oncologist and Attorney, Mercy Cancer Center
Biography

Jennifer Harvey, PhD
Associate Professor of Religion, Drake University
Biography

Presented By

 

 

 

 

Course summary
Available credit: 
  • 1.00 CE Contact Hour(s)
Course opens: 
04/02/2015
Course expires: 
04/02/2015
Event starts: 
04/02/2015 - 11:30am CDT
Event ends: 
04/02/2015 - 1:00pm CDT
Cost:
$0.00
Rating: 
0
Des Moines University
3200 Grand Avenue
Olsen Center
Des Moines, IA 50312
United States

Available Credit

  • 1.00 CE Contact Hour(s)

Price

Cost:
$0.00
Please login or Create an Account to take this course.