George Otto Gey

Henrietta Lacks, originally named as Loretta, was the daughter of Eliza and Johnny Pleasant. After her mother’s death, Henrietta went to go live with her grandfather, Tommy Lacks, in Clover, Virginia. Tommy was a small tobacco farmer who had already taken in some of his other grandchildren. Additionally, Tommy and other Lacks lived closely together and the small area where they lived had become known as Lacks Town. As a beautiful young girl, Henrietta attracted many boys, including her cousin…

Skloot makes sure that none of the events shown in her book are her portrayals of each character. Their words are not interpreted or altered in any way and the voice of each character is raw and direct from the source. The characters are developed in two ways. From a third person point of view in which she describes the Lacks family’s past or by the direct dialogue between Skloot and the Lacks family. Also, the main rhetorical device to keep the rule of “show, don’t tell” is diction of the…

Is it possible to live forever? To many, the idea of being immortal is preposterous. But many have debated that the cells of Henrietta Lacks are immortal, and thus so is she. Her cells have lived long after she passed away in 1951. The historical nonfiction book The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot tells of a African-American woman named Henrietta Lacks who died from cervical cancer. Throughout her sickness her visits to the doctor can best be described as skeptical. Living in…

of the cervix, Stage I” (24). Her cancer could not be defeated and Henrietta died October 4, 1951. Before her death, Dr. George Gey of George Hopkins Hospital cut a piece of her cancerous cervix without Henrietta’s permission. After her death, Gey tested Henrietta’s cells and found her cells would grow in culture, unlike all the other cells Gey has tested in the past. Gey collected and cultured…

Lawrence Wharton took her cells, gave her cell away to George Gey, and when pharmaceutical companies began profiting from her cells. She signed forms without having a clue what she was signing. The doctors who had Henrietta sign forms did not follow what they were having her sign. Finally, the laws of the United…

through to find the true story of the HeLa cells. . Starting off on Chapter 12 ‘The Storm’ the discussion started off about whether the Lacks family was ever compensated and what amount or reward is owed to them. Questions surfaced of whether Dr. Gey had the right to take a sample without consent, however the medical science knowledge that was obtained from that sample has saved so many…

Henrietta Lacks was a woman who contributed to society and medicine in a way she could not fathom. She would never learn of her contributions and her family would not gain knowledge until after her death. (The Way of All Flesh by Adam Curtis). Doctor Gey, upon obtaining Henrietta 's tissue, violated the Respect for Persons that is part of the Basic Ethical Principals. It states that the individual should be treated as an autonomous person, and that those with impaired autonomy should be…

While we had been discussing and reading about the ethical, legal, and social implications of various different cases throughout the semester, reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks allowed me to see it from a whole new perspective. While I have learned quite a bit from all the discussion, the many assigned readings, and the overabundance of bioethics reference readings, this book truly carried my attention from cover to cover, pulling me into Henrietta’s family while sneakily telling me…

The scientist that founded the HeLa cell was a man by the name of George Gey. Dr. Gey had been researching the cells for a short amount of time before he had lent the cells to one of his colleagues. The cycle continued as his colleagues sent the cells everywhere. The HeLa cells had made the headlines of many magazines with the…

weren’t seen as equal citizens to white people. Because of this, doctors withheld a lot of information, and they took the sliver from her without her consent and supposedly never told her about it. (Although there was one colleague who claimed that Gey did in fact tell Henrietta about the cells,…