The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
Conscience. Innovation. Alleviations. These three words all coincide in the creation of medicine. One could say the world of medicine all-round has drastically changed over the past couple of decades, but does anyone know the original reasoning behind it all? Hela cells. Not necessarily the cells themselves has changed anything, but the person they were taken from; Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman whom was born August 1, 1920. Before passing on October 4, 1951, Henrietta approached Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, trying to find out what was bringing her awful abnormal pains and abdominal bleeding: soon after she was diagnosed with Cervical Cancer and treated with radium and x-ray therapy. During one particular visit tissue samples were taken from Henrietta while being ‘treated’ for her cancer and studied.
Rebecca Skloot wrote, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, bringing to light the ‘complex social issues’ and ‘ethical dilemmas’ that entwined with HeLa cells and medical research. Skloots book goes on to expose the unscrupulous way the hospital treated the family, and also shows it might not have been just them. What the world was told to know was the outbreak of the precious tumor cells that would help with sicknesses and mend the families being torn. Without the founding of
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“The HeLa cell line has been the foundation of a remarkable number of medical advances, including the polio vaccine, the cancer drug tamoxifen, chemotherapy, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and treatments for influenza, leukemia, and Parkinson’s disease.” Although the cells themselves are cancer cells they have numerous characteristics that relate them to any normal cell. Being that the cells were more endured to other viruses because of their rapid growth they became an impossible force against the
Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
391 Words | 2 PagesHeLa was an immortal line of cells that led to many scientific discoveries. The book “The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks” has many different points you can view from. The book shows how history changed over time, how being African American and poor gets you no rights to privacy, and most importantly how medicine advanced because of Henrietta’s cells. Henrietta was one of ten children. Her mother died while giving birth in a barn.
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
461 Words | 2 PagesOne story follows Skloot and her journey on finding and convincing the Lacks’ family to be interviewed about the women behind the immortal cells. Another one talks about the remarkable things that HeLa cells have done in the research of the medical field such as cancer treatment, AIDs research, and the polio vaccine. The final one is on the topic of informed consent and how doctors have been doing tests on their patients without their knowledge.
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
965 Words | 4 PagesThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a novel written by Rebecca Skloot meant to be a memoir of one of the biggest breakthroughs in medical history and the woman that influenced it. Instead of immortalizing her cells like every other publishing company under the quasi-ambiguous name, HeLa, Skloot decided to give the medical miracle a name and tell her story. From life, death, and hereafter, Skloot has told the story of a woman that would have gone forgotten in history, along with the ethical mishaps along the way. The story begins with Skloot telling Henrietta’s life story and her sickness.
Henrietta Lacks Research Papers
704 Words | 3 PagesThese cells have helped prevent the deaths of 650,000 people and 13 million cases of paralysis since the 1980’s (Bhavsar). “All of this would not have been possible if it weren’t for Henrietta Lack’s immortal life” (Bhavsar). HeLa cells helped make the polio vaccine possible with their ability to be tested on and studied. As well as its ability to be multiplied continuously for multiple trials of an
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
419 Words | 2 PagesIn her nonfiction piece The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot explores the issue of patient compensation. Her intertwining of court cases, expert opinions from the medical community and examples like Ted Slavin. Skloot advocates for both ethical practice and scientific advancement in the medical field. Fully inform the patient this includes letting the patient know if they have unique tissues or what they are studying or testing for in the tissues. Have the patient sign a consent form when they are lucid.
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
672 Words | 3 PagesSkloot'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.
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
1303 Words | 6 PagesIn The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, author Rebecca Skloot uncovers the life of Henrietta Lacks and her immortal cells that have allowed some of the greatest scientific breakthroughs in recent history. By studying the lives of Henrietta’s living relatives as well as tracing the medical history of Henrietta herself, Skloot is able to provide Henrietta Lack’s and her family with the recognition they deserve while helping her family come to terms with the mistreatment and injustice they have faced. Starting off with how she came to learn about Henrietta Lacks Skloot delves into Lack’s story. After learning that she has cervical cancer, Lacks is treated at John Hopkins, but unknowingly has her cells collected for study. Scientists discover
Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks
615 Words | 3 PagesSkloot used the emotions form the inability to trust our doctors to better understand the fear of doctors that lived in the black community. Bluntly
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks
988 Words | 4 PagesWithout the consent of the Lacks family, Mcksick started using their blood for what would begin a new era of genetics research. In Today’s society this would be a major violation of ethics and be considered immoral but at the time of the research it was just considered a violation of privacy. Situations as the misguided and uninformed family is why Skloot believed that many scientists and the media saw the Lacks family as abstractions rather than a family who wanted to have an idea of what was going
A Critical Evaluation Of The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks
911 Words | 4 PagesShe states that she has conducted thousands of interviews with the Lacks family, and she was close with Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah. She exhibits knowledge of biology, and it is apparent that Skloot has dedicated lots of her time researching Henrietta, her family, and HeLa cells. Skloot provides dates of events that occurred throughout the novel, and she also provided names of the parties involved. Skloot’s elicitation of ethos lets the audience know that she is qualified to tell the story of Henrietta Lacks, and that she is qualified to speak on behalf of the Lacks
The Pros And Cons Of Hela Cells
595 Words | 3 PagesEver since a sample of Henrietta Lacks’ tissue was taken from her, without permission, the world of medicine has evolved, and multiple discoveries have been made. From the polio vaccine to figuring out how many chromosomes each human holds, HeLa cells have had some involvement. But all of this research came from a result of a violation to the medical code of ethics. The question of whether or not all research and findings that were a result of a violation of the medical code of ethics should be destroyed, has become very difficult to answer as we make more and more advances in the medical field. Personally, I believe that the way Henrietta’s cells were collected was a violation, however destroying all of the findings from it would be more detrimental to society than beneficial.
Henrietta Lacks Thesis
1020 Words | 5 PagesIn 1951, at the age of 31 Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Henrietta was under treatment at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where cells from her malignant tumor were removed. Neither Henrietta nor any of her family members knew about the tissue sample and nor did the Hopkins ever informed them of the situation. Unfortunately after Henrietta’s radiation treatment, her condition continued to worsen and soon she lost her battle to cancer on octomber 4th 1951. Henriettas cells left the Hopkins what they discovered to be known to be the first immortal human cell line.
Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Essay
1437 Words | 6 PagesIntroduction The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was an intriguing book. It not only discussed scientific thought but also other subjects as well. The book shows both the scientists point of view and the family’s point of view. In the scientists point of view the families and Henrietta’s consent was not needed.
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
1091 Words | 5 PagesIt was a rainy day in Maryland, Baltimore when a colored woman quickly jumped out of her husband car and then swiftly rushed past the colored restroom, “the only one she was allowed to use”(Skloot 13) and into the entrance of the John Hopkins hospital. Upon her arrival, the women went straight to the receptionist desk and unhesitantly reported “I got a knot on my womb”(Skloot 13). After she was taken for a medical examination, the woman was then told to go home without any idea or clue that there was something deadly that was both growing and dividing on her cervix. The woman was known as Henrietta Lacks, and this book nicely depicted how a poor, uneducated African American woman was taken advantage without her consent and then became one of the greatest figures in the medical field. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a non-fiction research and biographical novel written by Rebecca Skloot, which depicted the life and the
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