Rebecca West

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,…

died. This launched a revolution that shifted the course of medical history and lead to innumerable discoveries that have in some way affected nearly every human being on the planet. In her best-selling book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot tells the story of a kind and caring black women in the 1950’s who never ever knew her cells were being taken for research, and while Skloot certainly establishes both ethos and logos, her most effective writing and argumentation comes…

mark her death. These cells would eventually revolutionize the field of medicine and save millions of lives, but they also killed Henrietta, leaving her family behind in poverty and absolute turmoil. Throughout The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot most effectively appeals to her readers through the use of pathos, which causes them to become emotionally invested in the story behind Henrietta Lacks, the woman who changed the world of medicine without knowledge of doing so, whereas…

A person’s perspective is a key factor in their personality. If a politician has an early 1900’s racist mindset then the public knows they’ll attempt to limit the right of non-whites. If a male employer has a deeply rooted sexist mindset than it can be inferred that he would never employ women. These are all simple decisions that if implemented could have long lasting effects on a community, but what if someone’s perspective leads to a decision whose repercussions will literally last for an…

The health care providers utilized the illegally obtained cells from Henrietta who was poke and prodded before and after her death. In the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” author Rebecca Skloot uncovers “She signed a form with the words of operation permit at the top of the page” a statement found in the book showing that Henrietta signed to the consent of the operation permit, but that form did not include the ability of any physician…

This conveys to the reader the message that Rebecca Skloot is trying to send. The descriptive conversations between Rebecca and Deborah makes it possible to imagine how hard it was to process information on one 's mother. It was clear that Deborah was a strong woman, who took large measures with Rebecca Skloot to discover as much as possible about her mother. The scientific knowledge that Deborah and Rebecca gain from unearthing the past as well as the emotional pain that comes…

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Ethical Book Critique Andrea Burroughs University of Alabama at Birmingham Introduction The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was written by Rebecca Skloot who is from Springfield, Illinois. She is an award winning science writer. She first became familiar with the name Henrietta Lacks and HeLa in her college biology class. She was so intrigued with the information her professor Dr. Defler provided that she immediately went home to research more…

Piecing Together a Fragmented Understanding of Henrietta Lacks In the foreword to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot discusses her efforts and struggles in attempting to capture and to present clearly the story and narrative of Henrietta Lacks. Skloot acknowledges in the Prologue that there is “no way of knowing exactly how many of Henrietta’s cells are alive today” (Skloot, 2). All of the numbers are estimates, guesses, or attempts, and the idea that there is no way of…

Discoveries drive the field of medicine by making possible what was thought to be impossible, but the capability to do does not always mean we should. Doctors are known to be intelligent, but the value of their knowledge and servitude to society lies within the ethics of their practice and ability to better the lives of people around them bringing together many a myriad of communities to form a better society. A good doctor is not one who is able to practice the unthinkable, but rather one who…