Rebecca Skloot

Throughout recent history, humans have been told that they are given basic human rights. But do those rights really exist? In the novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks written by Rebecca Skloot, the main topics are consent to treatment and privacy. The government and people of higher power feel they are capable of revoking one’s rights, and this novel displays a perfect example of that. Social justice issues have been present in history for a very long time, and failure to provide someone…

Lolita in Tehran and Rebecca Skloot’s…

presently in medical science, where a patient’s cells are being taken without his or her consent. This problem is further discussed in both the articles “Deal Done over HeLa Cell Cine” by Ewen Callaway and “Taking the Least of You” by Rebecca Skloot. Although both, Skloot and Callaway, assert that patients must receive an informed consent, Callaway’s argument is based…

about one million dollars when it is donated for scientific use (Hamilton). With this being said, there is no doubt that people feel entitled to being paid for contributing to mankind, especially when what is being given is part of their body. In Rebecca Skloot’s book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, there is a great example that regards receiving compensation. Henrietta’s relatives believe they are deserving of some money made from the research done with her cells. Emotions aside, the…

In the early 1900’s, African Americans were faced with Jim Crow laws that created racial segregation in the United States, specifically the southern states. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, the protagonist, Henrietta was deprived of equal medical, legal, and educational services. The new historicism theory illustrates how African Americans were not given equal opportunities to medical attention, legal action and educational services needed as a result of Jim Crow laws.…

When HeLa cells started to be sold, do you think Dr.Gey should have stepped in to assure that Henrietta Lacks’ family was compensated in some way? Do you think they should be compensated at all? Dr. Gey should have looked out for the Lacks family and let them know about the cells back in 1951. The lives of Henrietta’s children would have been greatly improved had they had that money. The Lacks family deserves compensation not only because Henrietta’s cells were taken without permission, but…

Scientists and researchers concede that medical research depends significantly on human cells developed in the laboratory, in order to evaluate the functionalities of such cells, and test numerous theories concerning the causes and treatments of diseases. The cell lines needed for such experiments must be immortal, which implies that they should show signs of indefinite growth, split into a number of batches for use by numerous scientists, and frozen for long durations of time. In 1951, medicine…

period? The public interpretation would be different in 1951 in some ways like medical treatment and discrimination. However, it would also be different by the advances we have during this time. In the book The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot It had talked about, when Henrietta had first gotten Cervical cancer. Henrietta Lacks was a young African American women who had kids and a husband. She also had two cousins named Margret and Sandie, who was like Henrietta's best friends…

might sound nice for human beings. However, scientists may make poor decisions because of their passion for discovery and we cannot forget about the respect for fundamental human rights. In the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks written by Rebecca Skloot, she writes about experiments back in the mid-twentieth century when she says, “They recruited hundreds of African-American men with syphilis, then watched them die slow, painful, and preventable deaths, even…

Health and Human Services et al. 44). In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, there was a segment where a child was sexually abused by a kin. The young girl, Deborah Lacks, was sitting in the car with Galen, her cousin, who touched her inappropriately, but she did not know how to react. Galen would "grab [her] in the backseat, forcing his hands under her shirt, in her pants, [and] between her legs" (Skloot 113). Deborah believed her clothing was making it easy for Galen to…