The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Essay

Smith-Yackel uses the telephone conversation as a frame for the essay, which is very interesting. It makes the story a little more realistic and it ends the essay well. Being a mom is one of the hardest jobs in the world, this paper helped my belief of this

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.

Henrietta Lacks’s daughter Deborah once stated “If our mother cells done so much for medicine, how come her family can’t afford to see no doctors?” (Skloot 9). The lack of ethics also points to another theme of Henrietta’s story, discoveries are more than the discovery itself, there are always people behind them. Deborah’s words also emphasize the human side

No one had to ask could everything about Henrietta be released, but it was released without incident. But it took 20+ years for the information about Henritetta’s cells. It was still illegal for the doctors to take her cells and have their way with them, without her consent. These doctors and scientist did not really care about Henrietta because she was a colored women. Things would have a lot different if Henrietta was a white women with cancer.

Her goal was to stop, or at least lessen, the hold technology has on her life. The rebellion does not become a problem until she needs the corporations help to pay for her feed. The corporations refuse to save her life because of her inability to buy their items. “We’re sorry, Violet Durn...don’t feel like you are a reliable investment...check out some of the great bargains...might be able to create a consumer portrait of you that would interest our investment team.” (Anderson 247)

People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” This quote is related to what was happing in Africville in view of the fact that the white people of the time didn’t fancy black people and probably wanted them to meet their death. One of the ways they did that was they would pay black people low wages or no wages as they felt. The hardest part was that 65% of the people living in Africville worked domestic chores. Even with the little money they would get the government would still place municipal taxes in them.

“Of all the humiliations attached to being poor in a prosperous nation, not being able to feed your kids is at the top of the list.” Many parents are ashamed of getting assistance from the government because it is seen almost as a disgrace. Anna also suggests that many do not sign up for government assistance because, “The average length of a food stamp application is twelve often impenetrable pages; a permit to sell weapons is just two.” Such a long process just to get food for your family may seem like a very daunting task that many parents may not have time for.

From descriptions throughout the book, it is clear many families fail to provide for themselves, and have little to no food or resources. Some, like the Cunninghams, adapt new and innovative ways to pay off their debts and provide for themselves. But others, as Lee shows through the Ewell’s, resort to shoplifting and illegal forms of getting food on the table. The Great Depression also brought about a sense of hard work and perseverance to the people of Maycomb. “In Defense of a Loaded Word”: The main idea of this article is that there are many names that are inappropriate to use: an example would be calling your parents by their first name.

Not being able to fulfil her expected role while she was in pain, Kat became depressed and felt

Tillie’s mother suffered from sever manic-depression. She is unable to do much as she is always so overwhelmed with sadness. Her depression gets the best of her when caring for Tillie, as it forces her to give up. In her younger days, she used to give Tillie MEDICINE before bedtime to not have to deal with her. QUOTE ABOUT DRINKING.

They were given low pay and barely had enough food to survive. This makes the American Dream nearly impossible to achieve. In this novel, many people pass away, including Ona, Jurgis’ wife. Ona dies while giving birth to her stillborn baby. Jurgis goes in and out of jail many times due to many different things.

People all around the world have no chance of surviving simple to treat diseases or sicknesses due to the fact that they can’t afford health insurance. In the book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” it says “...the last thing he remembered before falling unconscious under the anesthesia was a doctor saying his mother’s cells were one of the most important things that had ever happened to medicine. Sonny woke up more than $125,000 in debt because he didn’t have health insurance to cover the surgery (Lacks 306).” This quote shows how people that can’t afford health insurance because they are poor are expected to pay the money for the surgery. His own mother’s cells were the biggest breakthrough in medicine history but her son couldn’t afford health insurance.

Witnessing my father chasing down my mother because of a pointless argument of my parents not caring about my siblings and I where abouts would be devastating to say the least. In The Glass Castle Jeannette and her siblings chose to appreciate the small things as they got older because they were not given materialistic items or a hot meal when they could afford it. Their mother made poor financial decisions and hardly ever put the kids first. For example, the mom chose to rent a piano over buying Brian a pair of male jeans. He had to suffer wearing girl clothes that did not even fit.

The study shows that although the majority of participants believed they were given sufficient information before deciding to participate, a large portion was unaware of the withdrawal power. Therefore, the participants were not fully informed. This topic relates to the theme present in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, in which a woman named Henrietta had her cells taken and used in research without her agreement. Although her cells produced extreme profits and ground-breaking research, Henrietta’s family was never compensated.

It is unrealistic because not all people can afford health care, for example the Lacks family because “Henrietta’s family can’t even go see a doctor because they can’t afford it” (Skloot, 2010, p. 180). The quality of health care all depends on what kind of insurance people have and if they have the money to afford it. Also, there are still limitations to treat or cure certain diseases that people have, such as HIV, diabetes, and more, so quality health for all is impossible today. However, many scientists and researchers are working on it to cure those diseases and medical progress has come far compared to the