Family relationships are an essential part of life however how someone is treated in them can heavily impact and influence them. Henrietta’s family had many shortcomings that unfortunately wouldn’t have happened if their family relationship was stronger. After Henrietta’s passing her family went downhill from her children being abused to her husband's infidelity during their marriage. Before Henrietta passed, her family life was gloomy because after her mother died her family was separated and she had to live with her grandfather. “ Johnny didn’t have the patience for raising children, so when Eliza died, he took them all back to Clover, Virginia where his family still farmed the tobacco fields their ancestors had worked as slaves.” conveyed by Rebecca Skloot. Which shows how her father basically threw her off to his family because he didn't want to take care of his responsibilities as a father. Family in today’s society try to stick together and when a parent dies the other parent normally steps up to take care of the children if any. But Henrietta’s family was unpredictable so the cycle continued when Henrietta died; her …show more content…
Knowing that no matter what they are always going to be family. “Family relationships are a biological conundrum friends you choose relatives you are stuck with.” stated by Roger Lewin. This quote is important because it confirms the fact that the Lacks had no choice in being born into their family. In Family by David Peterson he talks about family functions and interactions. “In virtually all cultures, the family serves as the basic institution for bearing children, caring for them during their early years…” according to David Peterson. Proves that the author's purpose is to show how family functions are comparable in that they are all based upon family. Which is similar to Henrietta’s but is creatively
Lacks. Henrietta was unable to walk, her “abdomen hurt and she could barley urinate”(Skool 64). Because of this checked in full time at John Hopkins hospital hoping that her procedures and treatment would keep going as usual. Mrs. Lacks wasn’t a negative person nor was she inconsiderate; she knew her death would soon come. In result to this she desirably made it clear that all of her kids must be taken well care of once she dies.
Despite all efforts, Elsie remained the same. This coupled with the fact that Henrietta now had two more babies, Deborah and Joe, led to Elsie’s institutionalization at Crownsville State Hospital. Losing Elsie was “worse than anything that happened to her” (45). It is evident that Henrietta did not want to send her daughter away, but the limited resources provided for people of her race and social standing left her no other option, as was the case to others in similar situations to
The book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot and examines the life of Henrietta Lacks and her peculiar situation with her mysterious cells. This paper will focus on chapter two in the novel and how it becomes the most important part of the book when it comes to understanding Henrietta’s life story. Chapter two is called “Clover (1920-1942)”, the chapter itself dissects the early life of Henrietta and the challenges she had growing up. In this chapter, it goes over the gender, economic, and racial obstacles that greatly impacted her. It is important to understand the socio-economic conditions that led Henrietta to be treated less than human.
The media and scientific community are guilty of viewing Henrietta Lacks and her family as abstractions. Nonetheless, the central argument of the book is that the scientific community has an ethical obligation to respect the dignity, autonomy, and person-hood of all subjects and individuals with whom it comes into contact. Accordingly, individuals cannot be made into subjects of scientific inquiry without their consent. And, when objects of scientific study (including, for example, the physical material scientists use within a laboratory setting) are sourced from individual people, those individuals deserve to be made aware of such sourcing, and when possible they ought to be appropriately compensated. Therefore, you can see how the scientific
Family is one of the biggest impact on people's lives in numerous ways. They help to teach each other perseverance even in the toughest times. In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie was able to survive the countless nights in the concentration camps because he knew he had his father right by his side throughout it all. In the novel Sold by Patricia McCormick, young Lakshmi did not have her family in person with her at the Happiness House, but she had them in her thoughts constantly. It was these thoughts that allowed her to keep going even when nothing was what she thought it would be.
Part two of, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, once again submerges the reader in to the world of HeLa cells. This section emphasizes what occurred with Henrietta’s immortal cells after her death. Along with the many medical discoveries made from these miracle cells, part two delves into the physical and emotional abuse that Henrietta’s children were forced to live with after her passing all while struggling financially while their mother’s cells are being sold for millions of dollars. Skloot continues her phenomenal synopsis of the life of Henrietta Lacks and the stories her cells continue to tell. One of the utmost riveting and critical scenes of this section occurs in the first few pages.
Multiple times throughout the book it was mentioned that Henrietta’s biopsy took place 60 years ago and a lot of changes have been made to science and ethics. This book did a good job bringing up ethics in science and scientific achievements that have been made over the years, but in some ways it was sensationalized to get the family the recognition they feel they deserved. As a poor, black family, the Lacks’ were discriminated against. Even the medical treatments they received were often not the best treatments offered and they were often experimented on. Having the fear of being mistreated and used for experimentation made the Lacks’ even more upset about Henrietta’s death.
The information that the lacks family had after Henrietta’s death was very limited. The lacks Family was the last consideration when individuals wanted information about Henrietta. Gold was a reporter that somehow got all of Henrietta’s medical records. Skloot writes, “When I asked Gold whether he tried to speak to the lacks family, he said, “I think I wrote some letters and made some calls. But the addresses and the phone wasn’t really my focus . . . .
A family contains young minds that are at first taught the building of personality or character and controlling the emotions of him or herself, while also being taught how to set goals for life (Ritter) But as new generations came of age, the family became a weakened and fractured unit as husbands and wives gave way to the human nature of adultery in a widespread manor. Here in America, the family has been under constant assault and broken marriages and broken households are now a normal thing to see. Few fathers show the guidance and teaching to their children that is needed often requiring the mother to take on both roles. As children grow up being more spoiled and pampered to, they are never learning to accept and recover from setbacks.
Her doctor collected cancerous cells and healthy cells from her cervix and gave them to the cancer researcher, George Otto Gey, who was trying to keep cells alive for more than a couple days. Henrietta endured intense radium treatments, but she still died at the age of 31, leaving her husband and five children behind. An amazing discovery was made Henrietta’s cell were immortal. Racism is prevalent in this book through the limited availability of healthcare, unethical behaviors of the doctors, and how racism affected her family. During this time, there was an extensive lack of medical care for colored people.
The children learned basic norms and values from the parents. The parents supply the economic needs for the child such as foods and education (ResviseSociology, 2014). In a family, different person performs different role and function such as a mother should take care of her child. The important is the child can feel the love and support from their parents (Gordon, 1997). Family dysfunction may appear in broken families, violent families and divorced families, etc.
The story, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, explores the true story of a woman named Deborah and her journey to discover more information about her mother and what her cells did for humanity. Deborah’s mother, Henrietta, died of cancer and her cells, which were attained by inhumane means, contributed greatly to the scientific study of curing other diseases. Although, Henrietta’s death also had a great impact on Deborah due to the fact that Deborah had to face certain difficult situations. With her passing, Deborah was forced to live with a cousin of her mother, who abused her and had a husband who also verbally and sexually mistreated her. The abuse is prominently shown when Galen, the husband, screams at Henrietta, “Get back here till I finish with you, Dale!
“Family” is a very important symbol for the Mckinley’s. Hutchinson talks about the symbolic interaction theory, and as humans interact with each other they attach meanings to symbols in their lives. In the case of the Mckinley family, “Family” is very important to them because it drives their behavior. Bethany, Stanley, Ruth and Marcia hold a strong relationship with each other and even though their external world seems to be falling apart, their sense of self is strong because they provide for their family through love and support. Stanley despite finding work is a great caretaker for his mother.
Families are said to constitute realities in which most of one’s attributes are constructed, based on the family interactions, beliefs, values as well as the behaviours that are seen in the specific families one is brought up into (Archer & McCarthy, 2007). However, even though most of one’s personal characteristics may be heavily influenced by their families; people do have a sense of individuality that makes them unique from any other person in the family (Becvar & Becvar, 2013). Therefore, one may argue that it is these differences that may cause misunderstandings in families.
Family theories have been used throughout the history of nursing to help guide patient care and provide the best patient outcomes. Certain theories may be more applicable to the specific patient encounter; however, each theory has benefits and drawbacks to their use. The purpose of this paper is to examine two selected theories, comparing their strengths and weaknesses. I will also discuss a theoretical family in relation to one theory, and how that theory can be best integrated into the care provided by an Advanced Practice Nurse (APN). Description of Theories