The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks - 1480 Words

Rebecca Skloot’s bestseller, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, begins with a quote from World War II concentration camp survivor Elie Wiesel, â€Å"We must not see any person as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures, with its own source of anguish† (Wiesel qtd. in Skloot n. pag.). This quote serves as a preview of the book and its underlying moral purposes, as Henrietta Lacks and her family are continually treated as objects without rights to their privacy and without regards to their worth or feelings. The dehumanization of the Lacks family by the media and scientific community not only resulted in consequences for the family, but influenced society, as well. In a HIPAA-conscious society today, some of the most obvious and concerning examples of the objectification of Henrietta and her family are the inconceivable breaches of privacy. Deborah Lacks, Henrietta’s youngest daughter, originally chose to not request access to her mother’s medical records because â€Å"she was afraid of what she might find and how it might affect her† (Skloot 209). In 1985, however, Science 85 reporter Michael Gold published a book about Henrietta’s â€Å"Immortal Legacy† including extensive verbatim quotes from Henrietta’s medical records, including details about her previous medical history, diagnosis, pain, decline and death, and even autopsy (210). Skloot recounts Gold’s offenses, â€Å"No one in Henrietta’s family had ever seen thoseShow MoreRelatedThe Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks1353 Words   |  6 Pagesregardless of race or color. In the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Henrietta, w as never given her own rights, and was used to benefit others. Scientists and researchers profited millions from the HeLa cell line, leaving Henrietta unaware of the legacy she left behind. Henrietta had tough up brining, and was a woman who was more concerned about other people than herself. The media and scientific community are responsible for treating and viewing Henrietta and her family as abstractions. The authorRead MoreThe Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks900 Words   |  4 PagesThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is composed of three sections: life, death, and immortality. The first section, life, focuses on Henrietta’s life; from birth to death. Her struggles with cancer, her husband and children, and her strong personality are all included in this section. The second section, death, focuses on the events that happened after Henrietta herself passed away, the official cause of death being blood poisoning from a buildup of toxins. The third and final section, immor talityRead MoreThe Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks1027 Words   |  5 PagesThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot is the author of the book on the scientist contributor, Henrietta Lacks. She first learned of the HeLa cells during her biology community college class thirty years after Henrietta’s death and became interested in the person behind the cells ever since. Skloot became determined to tell the true story of Henrietta, and did whatever she could to find information. She presented numerous years of patience interviewing the Lacks to find out all theRead MoreThe Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks947 Words   |  4 Pages The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks â€Å"The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks† written by Rebecca Skloot exposes the truth about a colored woman, Henrietta Lacks, who died from cancer leaving five children and a husband behind. Before her death doctors took her cells,without her or her family consent, to do there own research and experiments. They discovered that her cells were immortal, they became the first immortal cells known as the HeLa cells..After the discoverment the Lacks familyRead MoreThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks1177 Words   |  5 PagesMelissa Dattilo Mr. Schussler First-Year Foundations 5 December 2011 Henrietta Lacks Reflection Henrietta Lacks is a mother, wife, and scientific discovery. Henrietta began her life as a normal human, growing up on tobacco farms. In 1951, her life changed forever due to the fact that she acquired cancer. Henrietta had a total of six children, in which five of them were born before the discovery of her cancer. Henrietta’s cancer proved to be quite significant in the scientific field. Her cellsRead MoreThe Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks1425 Words   |  6 PagesRebecca Skloot’s book â€Å"The immortal life of Henrietta lacks† chronicles the life, death, and immortality of Henrietta lacks. Her name is Henrietta lacks but most scientists only know her as HeLa. She was a poor southern tobacco land worker who worked on the same land her enslaved ancestors did. Henrietta was a young black woman whose cervical cancer cells became one of the most important factors in bringing about the most revolutionary advancements in both medicine and science in the twenty fi rstRead MoreThe Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks1732 Words   |  7 PagesThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a book written by Rebecca Skloot in 2010 that tells the story of Henrietta Lacks and the immortal cell line known as HeLa found in her cervical cancer cells in 1951. Rebecca Skloot first heard about Henrietta Lacks in a college biology classroom back when she was a teenager. Henrietta Lacks was a 31 years old black tobacco farmer who died of cancer, and without her or her family’s knowledge, a sample of the HeLa cell wasRead MoreThe Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks1540 Words   |  7 PagesMidterm Paper: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks On October 4, 1951 a 31 year old woman named Henrietta Lacks passed away after months of fighting aggressive Cervical cancer. Before her death, Henrietta’s doctors had taken a small sample of the Cervical tumor that had been slowly killing her and developed what would become known as the first â€Å"immortal† cell line. Without Henrietta or her family’s knowledge, researchers named the line â€Å"HeLa† and before long were distributing the constantly replicatingRead MoreThe Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks1042 Words   |  5 Pagessitting in a college biology class when she first heard of Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cells. In class, Rebecca saw how the HeLa cells were able to reproduce and â€Å"they became the first immortal human cells ever grown in a laboratory† (Skloot 4). Henrietta Lack was also a black woman. Rebecca became very interested and wanted to know more, but at the end of class the professor told her that there this very little in formation on Henrietta. This spurred Rebecca’s interest even more. She began extensiveRead MoreThe Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Essay1258 Words   |  6 Pagessociety, are the moral principles that govern our behavior, dictating what is right from wrong. The specifics of ethics changes as values in our society change and evolve. This occurs in Rebecca Skloots book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. One major reoccurring theme in the book is the lack of informed consent and autonomy. Fortunately, now there are safeguards which protect human rights in regard to health care and research. The Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and