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The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Summary

1500 Words6 Pages

Sonali Sagar
Block: 2B
May 12th 2015

The Degradation of Morals and Ethics

In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks the author Rebecca Skloot tells us about a non-fiction story of an African American women who is diagnosed with cervical cancer and how the medical community exploited her for use of her “immortal” cells. From then onwards the cells have been used for widespread medical advancement and research. There is no denying the good that has come from this as even the polio vaccine was developed from these HeLa cells. Moreover, it has also been aiding with finding a cure for cancer as well as assisting with further research on AIDS. Despite the good that has come from the cells it does not take away from the fact that these …show more content…

Her cells were essential to the polio vaccine and are also responsible for creating a whole new branch in the medical industry and has also proven to be an essential part of medical research such as Aids. They are also the first human biological materials bought and sold, which helped launch a multi billion dollar industry. This is the main reason all of this occurred in the first place and why perhaps the doctors and scientists did not think it was necessary to mention where it came from as long as it was for the “greater good”. Moreover, during that time the doctors and scientists thought what they were doing was normal as nothing had been set in stone about medical practices as well as …show more content…

Her cells are contributing daily in saving people’s lives, as well as aiding with medical research and her story empowers others with a similar story and has also brought about much change since the 60s. Her story along with others has created a nation wide debate on what should be done to improve ethics in the medical field and has also brought up the issue about what happens to one’s tissue when it is retracted from someone but is still usable which led to the idea of putting in place the idea of informed consent, and compensation as her cells may have been saving lives but “ her family was living under poverty” (pg 32). All of these are some of the solutions put in place since the time of Henrietta Lacks. As a result, there are numerous lessons in this novel along with the fact that this is a true inspirational story that has made such a great impact in the medical society that the HeLa cells are still being used today to save the lives of many and to prevent other forms of medical issues as it provides the opportunity to research and

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