The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Analysis

The main ethical issues in this case is that researches at Johns Hopkins Hospital used Henrietta’s cell in multiple researches and send her cells to other researchers around the world without her family’s consent. Moreover, the Lackes themselves were used in medical research without informed consent, and Henrietta’s medical records were release to journalists without her family knowing.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, is the story of Rebecca’s journey in discovering the truth behind HeLa cells. HeLa cells are the first line of”immortal cells” grown in culture; scientists have tried to culture cells before, but the cells died within days of incubation, so HeLa cells were a revolution in the scientific world. With HeLa cells, scientists created vaccines for polio, tested nuclear radiation, and saw how cells reacted in space. Companies benefited when they produced HeLa cultures, and made millions. Although, not many people knew where HeLa cells came from or Henrietta Lacks, whose cells were cultivated without her consent and named HeLa, died of cancer without her

Neither Lacks nor her family gave her physician permission to harvest the cells. At that same time, however, permission was neither required nor usually sought. (Washington, 1994) In the early 1970’s, the family of Henrietta Lacks began getting

Much medical advancement would not have been possible without cancer cells from Henrietta Lacks. While these HeLa cells are infamous in the medical community, the story behind them was barely known by any until Rebecca Skloot uncovered it.1 Information about Henrietta Lacks uncovers a history of consent not being asked for, and certainly not being given, but because of the cells, medical discoveries were made without her family’s knowledge.1 It brings to light the idea that while cells are a part of a person’s body, once they are out of the human body there is no more ownership. Without informed consent though, is it still owned by the person whose cells they are?

Although Henrietta lacks and John Moore have contributed a lot to the science community their stories has raised many ethical issues concerning the privacy and consent of a patient. Similar cases might not occur so often nowadays because we have established laws that protect a patient's privacy and acknowledges them before making any

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks focuses on many issues that Henrietta and her family have faced over the years resulting from the discovery of HeLa cells. One such issue that was recurrently present was the ethical issue of informed consent, or the lack of it, in the Lacks’ case. In the beginning when Henrietta was first being treated with radium to kill her cancerous tumor, her primary doctor, Dr. TeLinde, took a sample of the tissue and sent it to Dr. Gey, head of tissue

At the very end of the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks “ written by Rebecca Skloot turned the Henrietta’s story about how religious beliefs and spiritual changes the Lacks family views and get over their mother’s death. The question is; how did the Lacks family’s understanding about religion and spirituality to not be worried about Henrietta’s deaths and become optimistic? The first thing is the struggle to get over and release the burden about Henrietta’s death.The persuasion of Gary’s preaching and religion belief affect to Deborah, and the honor revolution for her mom. Lastly, the spirituality is about the message of God by sending Henrietta orders to fulfill the very important mission that God can’t do is saving our people’s lives, so he recalled Henrietta as an angel to make his wish came true.

The publishing of the book, Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, not only brought light to an incredible story but also to the incredible need for change in legislation and governing bodies within the research system. Since its release in 2010, there have been various policy introductions coming from the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Among one of the greatest is titled, “Human Subjects Research Protections: Enhancing Protections for Research Subjects and Reducing Burden, Delay, and Ambiguity for Investigators.”

In 1951, a poor black tobacco farmer, named Henrietta Lacks, had her cells taken for a Hopkins’ doctor’s scientific pursuit. Little did Lacks and the doctor, George Gey, know that the cells rapidly multiplying in a petri dish in the tissue culture lab would fuel the exploration of some of the most important medical discoveries of the 20th century. While bioethics, poverty, science, faith, and medical developments are important issues that dictate the effects, motivations, and consequences of character’s actions, in the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, racism is still the most prominent theme in the story.

Rebecca talks about whether or not people should have the rights to their own tissues. She points out two issues, consent and money. In the past there was no informed consent, so the doctors and researchers felt free to use tissues in whatever way they wished, with little concern for patients' rights. Nowadays there is a different system, and it's required by the law to ask for a patient's informed consent.mThe money issue is a question of whether doctors should be required to tell patients if their cells or tissues are going to be used for commercial research, and what rights those donors should have. Later on, “scientists sequenced Henrietta Lacks's genome and made it public, without asking the family's permission” which was just another way in which the family was violated and looked over (Silver). Apparently Henrietta didn't get her rights, and neither did her children. Any way we look at it, if the family had received any benefits from the cells, it

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a non-fiction book, and sometimes impersonal, like when the author is talking about the medical facts of Henrietta's cells. However, it is also very personal at times, like when she's talking about the Lacks family. In one scene (pgs. 283-285), the author chooses to swear in her narration and it makes the scene very powerful.

The theme I have selected for my book is “...Despite one’s best effort, humanity will not always return the favor. Life is not a balanced scale; life is a dance of give and take that can leave one person on top of the world and another buried six feet under.” This theme can be linked to my poster’s slogan: “It is possible to be chained by the stories we have yet to tell,” because the chains that bound the Lacks family were the cause of the unjustness they were subjected to. The image I selected represents my slogan and the characters in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks because they felt locked up, left to rot as they wondered what had happened to their mother. The chains are the lies, the secrets, and the manipulations that the Lacks family

What does it mean to be immortal? The word immortal means to live on forever, never dying or ceasing to exist. In the book "The immortal life of Henrietta lacks," Rebecca Skloot writes about how Henrietta's cells have been living long after Henrietta herself died, making the cells what one calls immortal. Both spiritual and literal immortality is being presented to the reader throughout the book. As one reads deeper into the book, they find that immortality is one of the major themes concerning the cells, Deborah, and the story that ties it all together.

The book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, was a nonfiction story about the life of Henrietta Lacks, who died of cervical cancer in 1951. Henrietta did not know that her doctor took a sample of her cancer cells a few months before she died. “Henrietta cells that called HeLa were the first immortal human cells ever grown in a laboratory” (Skloot 22). In fact, the cells from her cervix are the most important advances in medical research. Rebecca was interested to write this story because she was anxious with the story of HeLa cells. When she was in biology class, her professor named Donald Defler gave a lecture about cells. Defler tells the story about Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells. However, the professor ended his

“The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks” written by Rebecca Skloot exposes the truth about a colored woman, Henrietta Lacks, who died from cancer leaving five children and a husband behind. Before her death doctors took her cells,without her or her family consent, to do there own research and experiments. They discovered that her cells were immortal, they became the first immortal cells known as the HeLa cells..After the discoverment the Lacks family were never told that Henrietta Lacks cells were used, bought and sold. Through the HeLa cells the scientist had made money while Henrietta kids were mistreated and were in poor situations.It wasnt till 25 years later that the Lacks family found out about the HeLa cells doing miracles. Rebecca Skloot though “The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” was able to explain the unethical situations that the Lacks family faced after Henrietta’s death.