The Benevolent Deception In The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lack

(Gilman pg1, pg9)

In the case of Henrietta Lacks and her family, the mistreatment of doctors and lack of informed consent defined nearly 60 years of the family’s history. Henrietta Lacks and her children had little to no information about serious medical procedures and the use of Henrietta’s cells in research. Henrietta’s cells launched a multibillion-dollar industry without her consent and doctors even took advantage of her children’s lack of education to continue their research without questions: “[Doctor] did not explain why he was having someone draw blood from Deborah… he wrote a phone number and told her to use it for making more appointments to give more blood” (188). Deborah did not have the knowledge to understand the demands or requests the doctors made of her, and the doctors did not inform her explicitly.

Because the medication that supposed to help with her outbursts and combative behavior is not as effective anymore. He reported that Pa fell on 11/11/15 but did not need medical treatment because she did not sustain any injuries (just soreness). The SC inquired about Bill handle his frustration and when Pa becomes abuse or combative and he state he just deals with it because he loves her “and no matter what that’s his wife and he’s going to do right by her” so he talks to

Both the relation between a superior midwife and her inferior apprentice and the use of humors and herbs in medical practice were accurate in Cushman’s novel. Midwives treated their apprentices with no respect because the apprentices were there just to learn, not to make a profit. The technology used by Jane the Midwife was confirmed by several sources; both primary and secondary sources. It appears that before writing her novel, Cushman did her research to provide readers with the most accurate information about 14th century

But unfortunately, the experiment was also never clearly explained to them, they had thought it was just the best possible treatment expected to cure the sickness they might have had. Many unethical practices were evident in this study, in this case, the most important one was informed consent, which is a consent given by a patient to a doctor for treatment with full knowledge of the possible risks and benefits. None of the participants in the Tuskegee study

The use of humor to alleviate the dull reality of life is used in Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which supports the idea that one's own humor creates happiness in others and relieves stress much like in the critically acclaimed Christmas classic, Elf, starring Will Ferrell. Humor is used by Ken Kesey very prominently especially when the patients do not seem to have the ability to laugh at anything nor find anything funny. The patients live a very dull life in which they repeat their monotonous cycle of life in the ward. They no longer have known what it is like in the norm because of the Big Nurse wears them down with the oppressive nature of the Combine.

The husband, John, who is a physician himself, does not seem to take her illness seriously and the narrator knows it, “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency- what is one to do?”(780). Another example is when John basically treats like a child instead of an equal calling her “blessed little goose”, “little girl” and his “darling” when she tries to bring up conversations about what she thinks would help her get better. After reading “The Yellow wallpaper” it makes you think of what it must have been like for many women during this period who felt like they didn’t have a voice and who may have ended in the same way the narrator did because of it. Women did not have the same opportunities as men did to show they were intellectuals and had something to offer society because they were automatically thought of as emotional and brushed aside.

The patients dont question his violence with Nurse Ratched because no one has ever standed up to her. Nurse ratched is the reason they dont have confidence in themselves. As McMurphy stays longer, the other patients become more aware as to what is happening. Before McMurphy came in the ward the men believed everything that was done to them was for their own good Nurse Ratched was able to manipulate the men and had full power to boss them around. After McMurphy came he was able to show them that Nurse Ratched uses their weakness against them and was just a manipulator.

Faber teaches Guy one important lesson: it is not about the books. Books reflect life and teach you, they are not a bad thing. Faber sees how the world has succumbed to electronics creating a lack of knowledge and even critical thinking. (“My wife says books aren’t ‘real’” Guy “Thank God

“She said I have confidence in you Charlie the way you struggled so hard to read and Write better than all the others. At the beginning of the story Mrs. Kinnian was very caring and supportive of Charlie and towards the end she didn’t seem to care about Charlie or want anything to do with Charlie it was almost like she was mad at Charlie. Which in turn caused Charlie to not have anyone who cared about him when he died, not that he would have wanted anyone there necessarily but he probably didn’t want to be alone. That is how Daniel Keyes portrays the that “theme people need to fully understand a situation, otherwise it may lead to misfortune and deep

The scientific community and the media are guilty of viewing Henrietta and her family as abstractions; they did not give the Lacks family a fair trial, they’ve yet to give her family any form of compensation for the success of her cell line, and operated on Henrietta like a science fair project. In the non-fiction narrative The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot, it states, “The fact that no one had sued over the growth or ownership of the HeLa cell line, he said, illustrated that patients didn’t mind when doctors took their cells and turned them into commercial products.” (204) This is unfair to the Lacks family because the fraud lawyer, Keenan Kester Cofield, deceived them. Although he is a con artist, he has a wide spectrum of knowledge about law than the Lackses really have about anything; they’ve had little to no education, and they barely knew anything about the HeLa cell line.

“Benevolent deception” is a typical practice where doctors purposely mask important information from their patients for the patients’ own benefit. Doctors will restrain information because “they believed it was best not to confuse or upset patients with frightening terms they might not understand, like cancer” (Skloot, 2010, 2011, p. 63). In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, doctors withheld crucial information from Henrietta, and overall left her in the unknown. Lacks had to frequently make trips to John Hopkins because of her constant discomforts and pains, and she had no clue what was causing it.

In the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, the author demonstrates the harsh realities that many African Americans faced in the medical and scientific field during the mid 20th century. The author shows the unjust practices of this time period through interviews with the Lacks family and medical professionals. These harsh realities are proven when Skloot talks to Henrietta’s family. Henrietta’s husband, Day, explains how they took samples from Henrietta’s body without consent when Skloot writes, “Day clenched his remaining three teeth. "I didn't sign no papers," he said.

Henrietta Lacks was thirty years old and found a ‘knot’ on her cervix, which led to her going to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer and treated with radium and x-ray therapy. Some of the tissue was removed from her tumor and sent to George Gey’s lab to be grown in test tubes. Gey was in charge of the Tissue Culture Department at Hopkins and had been researching and experimenting to attempt to make cells to divide so they could have an unlimited supply of cells to experiment on. Henrietta nor her family knew about the tissue sample and neither Gey or Hopkins informed them.

The primary ethical issue is that doctors took Henrietta Lacks’ cells without permission. Doctor Gey forgot the patient and focused his attention on the research.  Doctor Gey’s self- interest and quest for recognition allowed him to cross ethical boundaries.   He took advantage of Henrietta Lacks when she was sick, vulnerable and in need of medical attention therefore, one must question his moral judgment.