Rebecca De Mornay

in order to use them and attempt to grow them in a lab. Taking cells from unexplainable diagnostics without the patient’s consent for research purposes is beneficial for the medical use by future generations, but is immoral. In the story told by Rebecca Skloot, she unravels the deeper aspect of Henrietta’s…

Puneet Cheema 12/5/2014 PHIL 355 Professor Stacey Elizabeth Ake Extra Credit Opportunity #1: What is the story of Jessie Gelsinger? What was its impact on the development of gene therapy? In September 1999, Jesse Gelsinger passed away. It is often remembered by many medical researchers despite not really being a household name. It happened through the gene therapy clinical trial that altered the field, similarly to the Tuskegee experiments. The research practices…

The Secret Life of Henrietta Lacks was a book written by Rebecca Skloot in 2010. I had never heard of this book before I started to take Medically Terminology 1 and my teacher told us that we would be reading it over the course of the semester. I was very surprised that I had never heard of it before considering I work in a library. I enjoy reading books so when I learned that we would be reading a book I hadn't read I was excited to read it. The Secret Life of Henrietta Lacks was about an…

The Ethical Reflection of Henrietta Lack’s Story On October 4, 1951, a lady by the name of Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer and her cells were acquired for the purpose of research. Dr. Guy, director, and researcher at Johns Hopkins Hospital went onto live television proposing to the public that he had found a means to eradicate cancer through a recent study of cancerous cells (Curtis, 2012). It was clear that medical research had begun to soar, but the balance between the exploration of…

The three research issues raised by the research now known as the Tuskegee experiment included informed consent, justice, and do not harm. In 1932, the Public Health Service (PHS) doctors working with the Tuskegee Institute did a study to collect data on syphilis for justifying treatments for blacks. The un-ethically justified study went on for forty years before the advisory panel stopped it. In other words, the knowledge gained did not outweigh the risk posed to the subjects (Center for…

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…

talk about Henrietta. Eventually the family warms up to Rebecca and talk to her about their Henrietta. Rebecca got very close with Henrietta’s daughter Deborah. Deborah wanted to learn about her mother and help Rebecca, but some days she would be very paranoid that Rebecca was only trying to make money off of her and then the next day she was ready to go out and do more research, but Rebecca was always patient with her. Deborah helped Rebecca contact most Henrietta’s living family that could…

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…

Throughout The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, it is revealed that although science is helpful, it also has its own evils. Scientists stole people’s body parts, injected diseases, and did unnecessary treatments, all without patient consent. Henrietta Lacks was one of these unfortunate people. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Scientists then took those cells and started marketing them and doing experiments with them to come up with cures for various diseases. The family tells an…

died of cervical cancer during the first half of the twentieth century, led to dozens of groundbreaking medical discoveries. Despite this contribution, her family lives utterly destitute, her name forgotten by all but her most dedicated followers. Rebecca Skloot’s book attempts to correct this injustice, giving life to the woman many simply know as HeLa. Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks hammers the point home by using pathos to highlight the suffering of Henrietta, logos to detail…