Otto Preminger

In 1950’s Maryland, segregation was at it’s height-Jim Crow laws were in effect, schools were separate but equal, and the Klu Klux Klan had a mainstream following. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, a black woman, whose cancer cells were taken from her without her permission. Though her lifespan only amounted to 31 years, the effect of her immortal cells will last an eternity. Although Henrietta was an African American woman, she received the best treatment…

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is written by a curious journalist, Rebecca Skloot, who spent a portion of her life learning about a woman by the name of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer in 1951, but her cells lived on. One thing that was most shocking throughout this reading is the extent to which people will go in order to gain knowledge. It is surprising how many scientists, doctors, and other medical professionals treated patients unfairly so that they could…

In my opinion, the results of research (the cells, the cell lines) belong to the Lack family though the cells were used to develop disease prevention vaccine for polio, Parkinson's Leukemia, and the flu (Grady, 2010). The doctors did not protect Henrietta's privacy. A sample of her cells were given to Dr. George Gey, the researcher without permission. Her family members had no idea that her information was released to a third party. There was no informed consent given by the patient or family,…

Henrietta Lacks was a 30- year - old black mother of five when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951. She went to Johns Hopkins hospital to have the tumor looked at; they took a sample and sent her home. A few weeks later, when Dr. Lawrence Wharton Jr. was prepping Henrietta for treatment he took two samples from her one from the tumor and one from her healthy cervix. He never asked Henrietta if he could take these samples from her. Dr. Wharton Jr. took the samples down to Dr. Gey’s…

For many, doctors and scientists are revered, their hospitals places where people can trust they will be cared for, where they can recover and heal. Scientists are heroes that spend their lives combating a seemingly infinite list of diseases and conditions, all for making a brighter, healthier future. Hospitals are places of hope. Through the basic description of their occupations, it seems as though such medical professionals can only be described as good citizens, so how is it that families…

Although in some ways Germany played a minor role in causing World War I because Germany was pressured into WWI to honor its alliances, Germany should be blamed for the war to a great extent because Germany played a crucial role in establishing the alliance system, increased tensions and anticipation of war throughout Europe through its militaristic practices, and increased the size of World War I with its aggressive use of military strategy and new weapons. While some have maintained that…

Prof. Andrew Donson Modern German History Reading Assignment #3 Bismarck’s Germany Value: 6% of final reading assignment grade 1. What was the three-class voting system in Prussia? What purpose did it serve? Who supported it? Who opposed it (Fulbrook, A History of Germany, 126-127; Tipton, A History of Modern Germany, 112) A voting system based on how much one paid in taxes. Conservatives supported the system because it reflected their interests. Liberals did not support it, because it did…

HeLa was vital to cloning research, counting the number of chromosomes in a human cell, and the polio vaccine. HeLa refers to a cell line that given a endless supply of nutrients can divide forever. In this way, they are considered to be “immortal.” These cells are so prominently used in scientific research that if lined up, HeLa cells would circle the Earth more than three times. But where did these cells come from? They came from a tumor on the cervix of a black woman in the 1950s, Henrietta…

In times of desperation, we are morally impulsive in our decision making that sometimes lead to misfortune among others. What’s best for the greater good, isn’t necessarily what’s best for the individual. This moral dilemma relates to the issues in the novel Dawn by Octavia Butler and an article written about Henrietta Lacks by Jessica L Stump . Circumstances when somatic rights are thrown aside isn’t acceptable without consent, however, in times of desperation, we often side in favour of the…

In the novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, many situations arose due to bioethical and morality issues against the patients protection and privacy. Henrietta Lacks was a thirty-one year old, African American woman who developed cervical cancer during the 1950’s. However, samples of her normal and cancerous cells were stolen from here without consent or even knowledge. Tragically, Henrietta died shortly after many chemo treatments and the malignant cancer spread to every…