HeLa

withdrawn samples of her cancer cells without her knowledge and permission. These cells began reproducing endlessly. Even after Henrietta had died, her cells were still alive. They were transported all over the world and became known as the HeLa cells. The HeLa cells led to improvements in medicine such as vacines for polio and HPV and development of a clause that claimed that any personnel of a hospital has to have permission from the patient or the relatives of the patient to take any cells,…

cancer, polio, and other diseases. While I believe the use of HeLa cells was an incredible opportunity for the field of science, it by no means outweighs the damage done to the Lacks family and the African American community as a whole.…

Dr.George Gey is looked at by some as a selfish man who did cell culture research as a means of gaining fame and fortune at the expense of others. This is simply not true, as Dr.Gey was a truly selfless man, whose only goal was to expand the horizons of what cell culture research could bring for the better good of the human race regardless of how much money or fame he got. Dr.Gey was never a man with a silver spoon in his mouth. “According to Rebecca Skloot author of “The Immortal Life of…

cervical cancer; however, scientists across the world were using her tissue for medical advancement sixty-two years later. The problem is neither Henrietta Lacks or the family after she passed gave consent to these studies that occurred for years. The HeLa genome provided many discoveries in the fields of cancer, vaccines, viruses, and cells in general. Henrietta Lacks and her family did not have the rights to potential earnings from these discoveries made from her tissue (Zimmer 2013). The…

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks will further the discussion formed with Days of Gold and consolidate students’ understanding of greed as a positive quality. This nonfiction story will also shift our discussion of money motivated greed to a new topic: personal status as a motive of greed. An important idea in the story is benevolent deception and the belief that doctors could legally keep many things secret from their patients especially if the patients were poor or a minority. Students will…

Morality is defined by discerning right from wrong, which is something scientists who conducted human research were unable to do. In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot, Henrietta Lacks is an African-American woman who developed an aggressive form of cervical cancer. Although she is treated for the cancer, the treatment is executed much later than if she had been a white woman. During her first operation to treat the cancer, the surgeon removed two pieces of…

Although “HeLa cells were one of the most important things to happen in the field of medicine within the last hundred years “they were obtained without permission or consent in a fashion that was ethically questionable” (Skloot 4). The women who made all these scientific discoveries possible has been left unnamed in most studies and teachings. “HeLa cells were omnipresent. [we hear] about them in histology, neurology, pathology;…

Racial discrimination is a serious problem in our society, but was even worse of a problem in the 1950’s. Discrimination against African Americans in the 1950’s caused different struggles such as lack of education and lack of income, even all the way down to informed consent, or better yet the lack of. African Americans faced everyday struggles because of these things like not being able to get a good education because they were “different” and not having good jobs so they weren’t able to have…

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…

Consentimiento There have been several situations in history including what belongs to whom. There are more laws on possession than most people would be willing to count. Consent should be given as an official count of giving something significant over to another person, whether it be a car, house, or even organ donations. Not only is it illegal to take these things, it is incredibly immoral to do with or without a law. Before laws were implemented, doctors could take from their patients as they…