The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
The chapter, "Illegal, Immoral, and Deplorable" from Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, details the process by which scientist Chester Southam ran experiments on people using Henrietta Lacks cancer cells without giving informed consent. Chester Southam is a virologist concerned about the safety of other scientist working with HeLa. Southam begins to conduct unorthodox experiments on patients that already have cancer. The patients never know that Southam is injecting them with harmful cells. The central idea of the text is that Chester Southam is an inconsiderate, deceiving, and selfish scientist that cares more about his benefit than others. This main idea of the text is developed throughout the text by the author's tone, …show more content…
Skloot's attitude toward the subject is revealed through her word choice. The chapter, "Illegal, Immoral, and Deplorable" from Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, states "He told them he was testing their immune systems; he said nothing about injecting them with someone else's malignant cells." Skloot's choice of the word 'malignant' shows that she feels that Southam is harming innocent people. At first, the audience might feel that Southam is using safe cells to help the patients. The word choice helps the reader understand that the cells Southam is using on his patients are in fact not obliging. Skloot continues to use tone to develop the central idea. The chapter, "Illegal, Immoral, and Deplorable" from Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, states "But Southam wasn't their doctor, and he wasn't withholding upsetting health information. The deception was for his benefit - he was withholding information because patients might have refused to participate in his study if they'd known what he was injecting." This shows that Skloot has a negative attitude toward the subject. Skloot starts off by saying that Southam was basically lying and deceiving for his benefit. It is now that the audience fully realizes that what Southam is doing is illegal, immoral, and
The Ethical Story Of Henrietta Lacks And Hela Cells
506 Words | 3 PagesJust about everyone was profiting from HeLa cells except her own family. Throughout the book we can follow the interesting stories of Henrietta’s children and the scientist who worked with HeLa cells. Many ethical questions were raised and we can engage in the argument that the author poses. Is consent from patients’ necessary to proceed with testing on patients who are unaware of the procedures being done on them?
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
1039 Words | 5 PagesIn the book, there is a great amount of detail about Lacks’ cells and how doctors acquired them. “Doctors took her cells without asking.” Skloot’s book gives an overview of the book on the front, including that statement. The book states that doctors never asked for any kind of consent regarding her cell tissue, not even in the consent form for Lacks’s treatment. Another statement the book makes says Henrietta’s family did not learn of her ‘immortality’ until more than 20 years after her death.
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
1263 Words | 6 PagesCompared to the Lacks family, the Lacks knew their mother didn’t give consent for them to be using her cells for research. Skloot gives this example to the readers to compare both victims and their families suffered from misuse of informed consent. Even though this happen to the Henrietta in the 1950s, John situation is a little more current in time, it
How Did Henrietta Lacks Use Ethical Testing For African Americans Unethical
485 Words | 2 PagesIn the nineteenth and twentieth century new ideas of science were being put in place to help treat different diseases. Scientist did not know about how the human body operated and what caused certain illnesses, so they needed subjects to test in order to diagnose illnesses. In the book, Night Doctor’s, Skloot communicates to an African-American family to gain insight on an individual who contributed largely to research. Henrietta Lacks had cancer and the doctors noticed that there was something special about her cells. Henrietta died and they took her cells to help treat blindness, polio, and learn about cancer.
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
747 Words | 3 PagesThe book lays bare the painful history, what can be called as disquieting in present ethical views, on how tissue samples were obtained without consent and how the family was kept in the dark about HeLa cells for many years since Lacks’ death in 1951, which evoked questions and issues on privacy and ethics in the practice of medical and scientific research. Even so, during the that time it was not considered unethical to obtain living tissue samples from a patient without consent or to provide unauthorized medical
Henrietta Skloot
823 Words | 4 PagesThey had been trying to do this for awhile before the first one was created, so it was a very important event. The next big topic Skloot discussed was poverty. Money was tight in the Lacks family, especially since they had lots of health issues. When the Lacks family found out about the cells, they were extremely angered that people were making profit off of them, and they could not even get health insurance.
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
1184 Words | 5 PagesThe Lacks family had reporters and researchers approach them before, but none of them treated them the way Skloot did. Skloot, who learned about HeLa cells in highschool, was interested in the history and background of Henrietta, rather than the scientific facts. Although she was repeatedly rejected by the now cautious and paranoid Lacks family, who, at first, only saw her as a greedy reporter coming to bring even more upheaval into the family’s lives, Skloot was finally able to build a relationship with the family, namely Deborah, and invested into their lives, all the while writing the novel that would finally bring Henrietta’s story to light. Skloot had a different approach than the scientific community and media because she didn’t see Henrietta as an abstraction, but as an “universe with its own secrets,” which she so willingly shared with the
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
567 Words | 3 PagesIt was not until years later when researchers reached out to the family for blood samples to compare their DNA to that of HeLa cells. This caused a deeper distrust of doctors and medical professionals for the Lackses. Especially Henrietta’s two youngest children, Deborah and ZaKariyya Lacks, who grew up without their mother and know who she was. Skloot unearths the history of cell research and the wrongdoings of scientists by telling the story of the Lacks family and HeLa cells. She promises the family full transparency in writing the novel and provides them with closure when discovering information about their
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
685 Words | 3 Pages“Munchie prayed as he rode away, Lord, I know you didn’t mean to take this baby. She washed Day in a tub of warm water, then put him on a white sheet where she rubbed and patted his chest until he gasped for breath and his blue skin warmed to soft brown,” is one major manifestation of how perspective of each character shapes one’s actions and reactions. Due to Munchie’s deeply religious, Christian upbringing, she immediately seeks God’s supernatural aid to bring the baby back to life, as she believes that David was wrongfully in such a condition. Also, this visceral reaction could have been the direct result of her mere lack of a high school education which would encompass biology, much less technical skills in medical care. On the contrary, however, if Skloot were faced with the same situation, her feelings of discomfort towards religion paired with her higher level of knowledge would have led her to believe that since the baby had no scientific signs of life, that he should be declared
Henrietta Lacks Themes
211 Words | 1 PagesThe themes in the novel tell a complete story of life, science, and the science of life. “It was very dehumanizing to be thought of as Mo, to be thought of as Mo in the medical records: ‘Saw Mo today.’ ” (Skloot 201). This animal like referral to patients then demonstrates just how far medical ethics has come. It also proves that these dehumanizing tactics are a major theme in the story.
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
900 Words | 4 PagesSkloot brings attention to the lack of informed consent and the exploitation of marginalized populations in medical research. The story of Henrietta Lacks and her HeLa cells illustrates the ways in which individuals can be reduced to mere resources for scientific progress, without proper acknowledgement or compensation for their contributions. Skloot's book also highlights the importance of acknowledging the humanity and dignity of individuals who have been used for medical research. This is particularly relevant when dealing with marginalized communities, who have historically been exploited and mistreated in medical research. By bringing these issues to light, Skloot raises important questions about the responsibility of the medical community to prioritize the well-being and dignity of all individuals.
Henrietta Lacks
477 Words | 2 PagesHowever, Burki knows this is not crucial to the situation. This is proved when Rebecca Skloot, a source used by Burki recalls the entire ordeal the Lacks’ family had gone through as “appalling” (e395). By using these sources, Burki makes a stand on the issue and shows disapproval of what doctors and hospitals have done to the Lacks
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
1189 Words | 5 PagesSubsequently, it backfired due to his carelessness, leading his creation to cause harm to the people closest to him. " The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot is a non-fiction novel about the injustice the Lacks family faced regarding Henrietta Lacks' cells. The cells recovered from her body were a key component of the advances today, but
Henrietta Lacks And Ethics
462 Words | 2 PagesThe origination of HeLa cells, used in biomedical research for a potential cure for cancer, had made many ground breaking discoveries in science; all thanks to one woman, Mrs. Henrietta Lacks. The history of Mrs. Lacks’s contribution to these studies raised many ethical issues concerning healthcare practice. In the short film, The Way of All Flesh, we learn how these cells were revealed by direct violation of ethical principles. During the 1950s, matters regarding informed consent practices were in their beginning stages of implementation.
Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Essay
919 Words | 4 PagesSkloot showed that the lack of consent and uninformed patients, by the use of logical conventions, not only ran through the family’s history but still occurred to them
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