The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

1559 Words7 Pages

My Tissue or Your Tissue?
Where have the ethics gone in medicine today? Rebecca Skloot’s novel, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks discusses the life and influence of Henrietta Lacks within the medical community. Henrietta Lacks was an African American tobacco farmer from Clover, Virginia, whose cells were wrongly stolen from her without her knowledge or consent in 1951. Cells that would inevitably become the world’s first immortal cell line, thus transforming modern medicine forever. Through its vast impact within medical research, HeLa cells were able to aid in such efforts as the “development of the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and more” (Skloot 75). While the Hela cells allowed for many accomplishments throughout the medical …show more content…

Consequently taking away the patients decision and instead giving physicians full control to seemingly “play god”, as the decision is now in their hand. Through this problem within the medical community, society has inadvertently traded off ethics in pursuit for common good (Martinez). Because of this, such practices as benevolent deception in hospitals had room to emerge during the Jim Crow era. As doctors apparently took the decision of the patient in their own hands. Benevolent deception was a widely common practice during the times of Henrietta Lacks. It was a practice in …show more content…

For instance, laws on informed consent needs to be more specific and easy to understand in order to help society. By including one set guidelines on informed consent for all areas in the medical field it allows patients to have a consistent concept of informed consent where the protocols are clearly stated for the medical community as a whole. Through this, society benefits greatly as they are able to essentially take back their rights over their own bodies and tissues. Therefore, everyone seemingly has a sense of ownership over their own tissues until they decide to donate it to research after thoroughly being

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
1695 Words | 7 Pages
Introduction In this book, author Rebecca Skloot sets out to give a biography of the late Henrietta Lacks. She had first heard of Henrietta Lacks in her freshman biology class at 16 years old. After only learning her name and skin color, Skloot became very much curious. Twenty-two years later, all her research was published as The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
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Summary Of The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks
171 Words | 1 Pages
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.
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The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
400 Words | 2 Pages
In Rebecca Skloot’s novel “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” , she informs readers about “HeLa” aka Henrietta and also about her journey discovering the many traits of Lack’s past . Henrietta Lacks , known in the medical world as “HeLa” died in 1951 due to cervical cancer . She experienced frequent bleeding from her genital parts , due to a tumor that was in her womb . She wasn’t known for going to the doctor whenever she had a health problem , but in the book Skloot said that HeLa explained the tumor as a “ lump in her in womb” and had a feeling that she needed a doctors help. After being looked at by her doctor and being tested for possibly having syphilis , she was redirected to a gynecologist .
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Rebecca Skloot's The Life Of Henrietta Lacks
248 Words | 1 Pages
Dr. George Otto Gey Rebecca Skloot writes in The Life of Henrietta Lacks, part two “Death” how she was able to contact the family and describes the medical research on HeLa cells. Rebecca Skloot has a hard time getting a hold of the family since trust is a big issue. To illustrate, since Henrietta Lacks cell are legendary in the medical and science community the Lacks family been bombarded with people trying to get information about Henrietta. Because of this, Rebecca, had to first gain the trust of the family before she will be able to talk to the family. Scientist and doctor used Henrietta’s cells on animals and people to study the effects of the cancer cells and gain new knowledge.
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Henrietta Lacks: Her Cells In The 1950's And Today
734 Words | 3 Pages
Her cells have been bought and sold by the billions. The Lacks family still cannot afford health insurance(Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta
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The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
631 Words | 3 Pages
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is written by Rebecca Skloot and it has proved to be a very fascinating and educational book. From the beginning I was amazed by how medical practices happened in the early 1900’s. I knew they weren’t what they are now, but to have radiation treatments that turned your skin black sounds terrifying. This book taught me how important this woman’s cells were and how important it is to make sure you get consent. Henrietta married her cousin David Lacks and together they had five children.
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The Backtory Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
689 Words | 3 Pages
The book, clips, and movie have shown the controversy of medicine and research, as a patient’s cell is currently being used without the family’s consent. The overall story and plot of this book and film have been overly emotional because of the grief of the family as they face hardship without Henrietta. The story starts with the author, Rebecca Skloot, and her experiences with Deborah in discovering the backstory of Henrietta Lacks. Rebecca got in contact with Deborah’s family to write her book about “HeLa” cells because she got interested after a lecture with her professor. The reasoning is because no one is aware of the background of these cells.
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The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
449 Words | 2 Pages
Jade Sherwin May 14th, 2018 Essay test 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. The Lacks family’s right to privacy was violated by people exposing the Lacks’s information “Newspapers and magazines “published articles about Henrietta , one of the pivotal figures in the crusade against cancer.”
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How The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Changed The Medical Field
929 Words | 4 Pages
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is about the life of the woman whose cells changed the medical field and about the impact those cells have on her family. Henrietta was a black woman who grew up in Clover, Virginia in a family of poor, tobacco farmers. Her mother died when she was young and her father left shortly after, leaving her to be raised by her grandfather, who was also raising her cousin, Day. She later married Day and they moved to Turner Station, outside of Baltimore, Maryland because Day was able to get a decent paying job. Henrietta and Day had five children: Lawrence, Elsie, Sonny, Deborah, and Zakariyya.
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The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
1150 Words | 5 Pages
Intrigued by the story of the immortal cells, she sought out for more information on the woman behind the cells. After class, she went to her teacher and asked if he knew more about Henrietta but all he knew was her name (4). That is the event that started Skloot on her mission of justice for Henrietta Lacks. Since the, Skloot has done over a decade of research for her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. She talked to as many, if not all, living family members of Henrietta and she interviewed every doctor, scientist, journalist, and more possible.
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Henrietta Lacks Impact On Society
442 Words | 2 Pages
In the 1950s the first ‘immortal’ human cells were grown from a cancerous tissue sample taken from Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman, without her knowledge or consent. She had died shortly after, at the unfortunately early age of 31, of a severe case of cervical cancer. Henrietta had a list of ailments that included neurosyphilis, gonorrhea, and HPV the leading cause of her cervical cancer and, ultimately, her death. The hospital that had diagnosed her cancer, Johns Hopkins, had supposedly been one of the best hospitals in the country, but it participated in discriminatory and amoral research practices when treating African Americans. Not only taking taking Henrietta’s cells without her consent, but injecting them and other cancer cells into patients without their knowledge.
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The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
1018 Words | 5 Pages
Many students struggle with the same question: When will I ever use this in the real world? They spend the formative years of their lives learning information that molds them in a way that just doesn’t end up sticking. Most humans won’t need to differentiate between strong and weak bases on a daily basis but everyone reads. A skill we began learning in kindergarten might just be the most important skill we learn in school. Reading opens our eyes to new worlds and new opportunities.
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Essay On The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks
1453 Words | 6 Pages
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks details the experiences of social injustice and humanizes a woman whose legacy has been defined by the power of her cells. Skloot seamlessly tells the story of Henrietta and her family’s struggle to come to terms with their interactions with the health care system and their mother’s story. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman from a rural town in Virginia, was diagnosed with an aggressive case of cervical cancer and treated at Johns Hopkins. During treatment, a tissue sample was taken from her cervix without her consent. The sample was for Dr. George Gey, who was able to grow Henrietta cells in culture and discovered that her cell line was immortal.
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Henrietta Lacks And Ethics
462 Words | 2 Pages
The 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.
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Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Essay
919 Words | 4 Pages
An essential part of modern society relied on trust, especially the trust of doctors and scientists. People had the right to make an informed decision about their bodies and body parts. People had a right to their body parts, both attached and cell samples collected by doctors. The actions that the medical professions made will continue to affect future generations in both positive and negative ways. In the contemporary biographical novel, the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot used logical opinions to argue about the importance of consent to reveal the lack of morality from those in the medical field which continues to persist today.
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The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot