Henrietta Lacks Lack Of Education

Henrietta Lacks was born as Loretta Pleasant in Roanoke, Virginia, on august 1, 1920. Henrietta Lacks like many other African Americans with financial issue or discrimination got treated in John Hopkins. African Americans such as Henrietta Lacks would not go to the Hospital unless they deemed necessary. With the lack of education African American knowledge was not deep enough to understand. Henrietta education went only as far as 6th grade; her husband day education went as far as 1st grade. Due to their little knowledge doctors and scientist had taken advantage of them. Africans Americans for them it seemed as if they were the new foreign exchange student in a classroom were everyone speaks a different language, (pg16) Skloot mentioned “For Henrietta, walking into Hopkins was like entering a foreign country where she didn’t speak the language. She knew about harvesting tobacco and butchering a pig, but she’d never heard the words such as cervix or biopsy……” Due to here education most African Americans only went to the hospital when it deemed necessary to them. They would go to the hospital with faith and trust that towards the doctors. It was like an unknown law to them that they should not question what the Doctors do to them, so when the doctors would tell them about a surgery they would take it in and say ok, have the surgery and go back to their everyday

Frederick Douglass was born a slave in rural Talbot County and he served a family in Baltimore. After escaping to the North in 1838, he settled in Bedford, Massachusetts, where he became active in the abolitionist movement. His mistress was kind she taught him the letters of Alphabet and she always instruct him and one day she changed and suddenly stopped teaching him because of the inequality of the people. A form of EOF student stated “For Douglass, gaining knowledge was more of a curse than a blessing because, as a slave, education made him aware that he had absolutely no alternatives to his condition.” I disagree because education is important, he could help other slaves, and he could break off from the black stereotype.

Elie Wiesel writes, “We must not treat anyone as an abstraction.” Rebecca Skloot wrote The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman that grew up on a tobacco farm. Henrietta in her teen years was attracted to a boy named Day her cousin. Day and Henrietta got married and had family. Henrietta found out that she has cervical cancer. Doctors discovered Henrietta’s cells were very different than all other cells, the doctors called the cells HeLa. The scientific community and the media treat Henrietta and her family as abstractions through dehumanizing experiments, the use of Henrietta as a human interest piece, and the lack of information given to the Lacks family.

Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with extremely aggressive cervical cancer at the age of 30 and within the year it progressed and she died. Skloot's very vivid medic terminology, as well as her frank and at some points disgusting imagery truly captures her conditions horror. Also not to mention the emotional pain felt by her family and friends as they watched her die. Her story is told in detail in the book, and is something many people can relate to, since cancer is such a common disease. However, Henrietta's personal story is not the only way the book elicits pathos. Later in the book, as Skloot actually gets close to the members of the Lack's family it becomes more and more apparent that they are angry Hopkins took Henrietta’s cells without her consent and that no one had informed them either after she died. Lawrence tells Skloot, “She’s the most important person in the world and her family living in poverty. If our mother so important to science, why can’t we get health insurance” (Skloot 168)? This shows the Lack’s think it is unfair that Henrietta had, unknowingly, contributed so much to the scientific world, but her family is living in poor areas and conditions without any health

Millions of people have these cells to thank for their health and researchers owe their life’s work to them. Yet, the Lacks family cannot even afford to go to the doctor and are completely unaware of everything their mother’s cells have done for the wellbeing of people all around the world. Gey would not even publish or release her real name. In chapter 22, the reader sees the family’s reaction to being kept in the dark about these cell, Bobbette says, “Everybody always saying Henrietta Lacks donated those cells. She didn’t donate nothing. They took them and didn’t ask.” This quote ties together much of the story behind the ethical issues surrounding these cells and the importance of informed consent, a privilege we now take for granted

Poverty is affecting billions of people around our world and the number is growing with each day. Many people think they can avoid the effects of poverty, but it is something that affects all of our daily lives. Many people see poverty as a person who lacks money, although this is true poverty is caused by many more things than being without money. Just the fact that one in two children live in poverty can help people see clearly the impact it has on our world. Poverty truly does influence the type of care and treatment a person will receive when they need it.

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it”(Lee 30). These are the words of Atticus Finch, the wisest character in the famous novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. He is a fictional man that embodies human traits that all people should strive to emulate. In the novel; narrated by Atticus’ daughter Jean Louise Finch, more often referred to as Scout; Atticus defends a black man, Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping a white female, Mayella Ewell. The main message of the text is the prominence of racial injustice, specifically in the 1930’s, the era the novel takes place in. Since the publication of the text there has been a lot of controversy about whether or not students should read the text in middle school or high school.

In many countries living in extremely poor conditions, not only is basic health an issue but also the lack of education. Although it is a necessity, “more than 72 million children of primary education age are not in school and 759 million adults are illiterate” (Rights to Education 1). The deprivation of education should be taken serious if a change is wanted. People need to become aware of how important education is and the benefit that it has. Douglas and Malala struggled to gain an education in order to resist control by others, which affected their lives in multiple ways; however, they were able to reveal the value of education to all.

With the start of the Industrial Revolution taking shape in America, a plethora of inventors began to contribute, whether they knew how impactful it would be or not. Massachusetts born Eli Whitney was one such inventor. Eli Whitney was a young student who, after graduated from Yale College in 1793, took a ship to Savannah, Georgia in which he was to take up a tutoring position on a South Carolina plantation. He was to become a private tutor while he concurrently prepared to enter law. While on his journey to Georgia Eli met the widow of General Nathanel Greene, Katherine Greene, in which she invited Eli to visit Mulberry Grove, where she believed that he could be of use in aiding local planters with farming issues. These planters had been

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” details the injustice and hardships that an African American woman endured when skin color determined the value of a person/during a time dominated by racial segregation/when racial segregation was the law of the land. Born in Roanoke, Virginia, on August 1, 1920, Henrietta Lacks was forced to follow to racial segregation laws that prohibited Blacks from interacting with Whites in such public places as bathrooms, seating areas, colleges, and hospitals. Like all African Americans, she was treated as an inferior member of society due to her skin color. At the age of thirty, Mrs. Lacks had developed cervical cancer and went to Johns Hopkins Hospital, which only treated Blacks at the time.

Rebecca Skloot’s book “The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” tells the story of Henrietta Lacks a young mother, a descendant of slaves, whose suffering changed the course of medical research and made life healthier for the rest of us. Henrietta was diagnosed with cancer in numerous ways the Lacks family’s right to privacy was violated.

Civil Rights and advancing of racial equality has been a major issue for many, many years and seems to still be today. There are periods of time when the intensity is at a low and periods of time when it seems to be very volatile. Sound our focus be on economic opportunities, as outlined by Booker T. Washington, or for addressing the disfranchisement of African Americans that Charles W. Chesnutt described. A broad educational background, permitting vocational adaptability and flexibility, seems more imperative but then one could argue that you cannot obtain that education without the representation and protection of our civil rights. Can a great education change things.

Others might think this because her family had not gotten a share of the profits from Henrietta 's cells. However Henrietta herself did not face adversity, but her family had to face the adversity because they found out what scientists did with her cells twenty years after her death, and had never seen any money from it. Also all Lacks had to do was die to face adversity, while Mawson had to walk through an endless wasteland without food or warmth to make it back to his camp. Mawson also had to eat his own dog and tape the sole of his foot back on just to survive in the antarctic. Another reason why people might think Lacks faced more adversity is because she was poor and faced racial discrimination. Although she did face adversity in these situations it does not compare to having to walk through a frozen tundra without food and in constant danger of becoming a human popsicle. Who would you say faced more adversity a women who only had to die to face adversity, or a man who walked aimlessly in the antarctic without food or water and was in constant danger of

Our family can only eat whatever we grow on a small plot of land located a short way from our house. We have no other form of income so if we are unable to pick anything to eat from the land we go without food on that day. This happens a lot and we regularly go several days without any food at all. When we do pick vegetables from the land it’s very rarely enough for the whole family to be fed so my husband and I have to decide who will eat that day. You can see my younger children crying a lot, it’s because they are so hungry.”“The only source of water for our family is a shallow well situated near to our field. The water is very dirty and the children regularly get sick

Education is a small word but it has a big meaning it can change your life and take you to another level and a new world, it teaches you how to communicate with everyone and everywhere, like Malcom X said “ Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” In to kill a mockingbird Scout values education and understands how important it is to be educated, it’s like having a big power.