The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

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Recommended: Principles in biomedical research ethics

How would you feel if your mother’s cells changed the world of science forever? The book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”by Rebecca Skloot is a book filled with the discoveries of medical mysteries all throughout the 1900’s. I will be talking about the ethics covered in the book, laws against consent of conducting research, and the science behind it all. First, I believe that doing medical procedures without being given the consent to do so is a serious issue that is very wrong because that could be jeopardizing somebody's whole life without them even being aware of what is being done. “With Henrietta unconscious on the operating table in the center of the room, Dr. Lawrence sat between her legs. He peered inside her, dilated her cervix,

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    All I can say is amazing information of your glorious and late Henrietta Lacks. This incedible women bettered our society in ways no common human could understand at the time because of how complex this matter was and still very much indeed is. I know there is much contraversy with the matter of how scientists achived immortal cells from your late relative, and I do strongly agree with the fact that it was wrong for these researches to take advantage of this incredible women, but I know it is not for me to say nonethless it must be said that even though it was wrong to take Lacks’ cells when she was dying sometimes one must suffer to bring joy to the entire world.

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  • Henrietta Lacks Quotes

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    In the novel The Immoral Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, the author tells the miraculous story of one woman’s amazing contribution to science. Henrietta Lacks unknowingly provides scientists with a biopsy capable of reproducing cells at a tremendusly fast pace. The story of Henrietta Lacks demonstrates how an individual’s rights can be effortlessly breached when it involves medical science and research. Although her cells have contributed to science in many miraculous ways, there is little known about the woman whose body they derived from. Skloot is a very gifted author whose essential writing technique divides the story into three parts so that she, Henrietta

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    The novel, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, is written by Rebecca Skloot. This novel provides a real story regarding research using human tissue without patient’s consent. It gives the background of Henrietta Lacks and the achievements HeLa cells established to point out how fallacious it is for doctors to take the cells without asking. Through the unique pattern and devices, Skloot expresses her sympathy for the right of consent of medical research.

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    Imagine having a part of your body taken from you without your permission, and then having those cells that are a part of your body grow and are being processed in labs around the world and then ultimately being used for the highest of research. That is what happens to Henrietta Lacks. In the book, The Immoral Life of Henrietta Lacks, we see Henrietta Lacks and her families story unravel, the numerous hardships that they faced, and the shocking revelation that their relative cells were being used for research without her consent and theirs.

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    The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is a story of science, religion and the life of the Henrietta Lacks herself. It has won many awards and was on the New York Best Seller list for over three years. To summarize it briefly, the book is based on the cells of Henrietta Lacks who died of cervical cancer in 1951. Sometime before she died, some of her tissue was sampled and used for research without her permission. They used the cells form her body to experiment on which led to many breakthrough discoveries in the scientific world. The cells were later named HeLa cells. No one in her family knew about this until years after her death, so they felt like she was just being used as an experiment from which they got nothing. When looking at the book as a whole, it is easy to see why so many people hold it in such high regards; however it appealed to me in a different way.

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    In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, multiple cell research studies involving Henrietta’s cells are described. Author Rebecca Skloot writes about Henrietta Lacks’ journey through her cervical cancer and how her cells changed the lives of millions long after her death. Skloot relates the history of cell research, including those studies which were successful and those that were not so successful. It is necessary for the author to include the achievements and disturbing practices of scientists throughout this history to inform readers and focus on the way Henrietta’s cells were used. Truth always matters to readers and Henrietta’s family deserves the truth.

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    In looking at these instances, the doctors seemed to have thought their actions normal. They thought that since they were treating the patient they automatically had access to their cells, tissues, DNA, that they could take without permission and use to develop science or to even become rich and famous like Dr. Golde tried to do. One might say that no matter how useful a person's biological property can be to western medicine and science, it does not excuse the violation of privacy of a patient. Ostensibly, there is no need to worry about a patient saying no if the doctor has moral and beneficial intentions for the use of a patient's private, biological

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    Although HeLa cells were a great advancement, they also brought a lot o controversy. Still today, people are trying to figure out if it was right of Dr. Gey to take the cells without her permission. Henrietta’s family also had no idea all of these scientific experiments and advancements were happening with their relatives cells. The Lacks family was very poor and did not receive any money from Henrietta’s cell line. More than twenty years later, her daughter-in-law met someone from the National Cancer Institute who recognized her surname. He told her that he was working with cells from a woman name Henrietta Lacks. The daughter in law recognized this name and told Mrs. Lacks son, “Part of your mother, it’s alive!” (Grady). The family was shocked

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    And even though the Lacks family learns for the first time in 1973 that Henrietta’s cells are still alive, it wasn’t until 1991 that it became illegal for research to be done without informed consent (The Common Rule).The family of Henrietta Lacks had not been informed because there were no laws requiring it. This can lead us to believe that at the same time, many other individuals were not being fully informed as to what they were getting into. Today “many bioethicists question why the family [of Henrietta Lacks] was left in the dark.”

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  • Process of Scientific Inquiry

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    Rebecca Skloot’s novel, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks told the story of the injustice done a a young African American woman, and her family. Henrietta’s cancerous cells were taken from her without her consent, and turned out to be immortal. They were sold all over the world for billions of dollars, while her family, struggling to put food on the table, did not receive a penny of it. Rebecca Skloot uncovers the hidden story of the HeLa cells, and provides a novel not only highly informational, but also with insight to the workings of science. This book outlines the process of scientific inquiry, reveals the contrary forces of altruism and profit that influenced HeLa, and the risks and benefits of profit guiding research as well as the obstacles faced when conducting research for purely altruistic reasons.

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    Autonomy is the idea that “rational individuals should be permitted to be self-determining” (pg. 941). In other words, Henrietta Lacks, a rational individual, was not allowed to make a self-determining decision as to if the cells should be removed or not. People act autonomously when their actions are the result of their own choices and decisions. Patients should be able to make autonomous decisions regarding their actions, options, and outcomes. Another example of autonomy being violated is the Tuskegee Syphilis study. In the study “participants were led to believe they were receiving appropriate medical treatment when in fact such treatment was being actively withheld to study the effects of their disease” (pg. 943). In both Lack’s situation and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, African-American participants were used and all participants were denied the opportunity to decide what happens to his or her body. However, autonomy is more than the freedom of making a decision, “there must be genuine options to choose among” (pg. 943). Overall, if a person does contain a vital part of major medical advancements such as Henrietta Lacks's cells, he or she should not be coerced into giving away his or her body. Since humans are rational individuals they should also be

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  • Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks, By Søren Kierkegaard

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    "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards" written by Søren Kierkegaard, states the irony which are peoples lives. They have to live their life knowing they can not understand it. The present of a person's life is very confusing, but in the end; he or she will look back and see how all the different events of his or her life fits together like a puzzle. In the memoir (italicizes) Night, by Elie Weisel and the biography (italicizes) The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, the veracity of this quote can be proven by irony and repetition. From Elie, the reader sees the repetition and irony of events in which Elie is constantly struggling for his own life and dignity. Through Deborah's struggles the reader see the irony of how scientists

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