The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - 1155 Words

The story and core argument The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of Henrietta Lacks. In the early 1951 Henrietta discovered a hard lump on the left of the entrance of her cervix, after having unexpected vaginal bleeding. She visited the Johns Hopkins hospital in East Baltimore, which was the only hospital in their area where black patients were treated. The gynecologist, Howard Jones, indeed discovers a tumor on her cervix, which he takes a biopsy off to sent it to the lab for diagnosis. In February 1951 Henrietta was called by Dr. Jones to tell about the biopsy results: â€Å"Epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix, Stage I†, in other words, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Before her first radium treatment, surgeon dr.†¦show more content†¦John Moore lost the lawsuit against David Golde, according to the judge he had no right â€Å"to ownership interest in the patent - he was not one of the inventors. Nor, it concluded, could a patient exercise property rights over discar ded body tissues.† (von der Ropp Taubman, 2006). The loss of the lawsuit by Moore caused a lot of media attention and again a big ethical discussion in science. As previously said, this story also highlighted the importance of ethical and ownership laws in medical research. Relevance of the book I think this book adds a lot of value to ethical, biological and scientific education. The book gives you a very good view on how the HeLa-cells were grown, but also especially on the human behind these cells, Henrietta Lacks. Not only is the story of the discovery of HeLa relevant for (scientific) biological education, but also for scientific research education in general. The book adds value to scientific education, in a way that the story of HeLa makes you realize what the importance of research ethics is and how complicated and unfair issues about human tissue used in research are. You secretly hear the voice of Rebecca Skloot through her writing, telling the world to threat the â€Å"donors† with dignity and justice by making decent agreements and laws about human tissue used in research. She shows her readers how big theShow MoreRelatedThe Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks1353 Words   |  6 Pagesregardless of race or color. In the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta La cks, Henrietta, was never given her own rights, and was used to benefit others. Scientists and researchers profited millions from the HeLa cell line, leaving Henrietta unaware of the legacy she left behind. Henrietta had tough up brining, and was a woman who was more concerned about other people than herself. The media and scientific community are responsible for treating and viewing Henrietta and her family as abstractions. The authorRead MoreThe Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks900 Words   |  4 PagesThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is composed of three sections: life, death, and immortality. The first section, life, focuses on Henrietta’s life; from birth to death. Her struggles with cancer, her husband and children, and her strong personality are all included in this section. The second section, death, focuses on the events that happened after Henrietta herself passed away, the official cause of death being blood poisoning from a buildup of toxins. The third and fin al section, immortalityRead MoreThe Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks1027 Words   |  5 PagesThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot is the author of the book on the scientist contributor, Henrietta Lacks. She first learned of the HeLa cells during her biology community college class thirty years after Henrietta’s death and became interested in the person behind the cells ever since. Skloot became determined to tell the true story of Henrietta, and did whatever she could to find information. She presented numerous years of patience interviewing the Lacks to find out all theRead MoreThe Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks947 Words   |  4 Pages The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks â€Å"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 familyRead MoreThe Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks910 Words   |  4 PagesThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is about a mother that had die with a unknown cancers in which her cancerous cells stayed alive outside her body. Her family doesn t knowns until many years later when reporters and doctors starts to talk about her mothers cells in world wide. Her family wants to learn more about her mothers cells but not many of the reporter and doctors are much help. Until Rebecca Skloots the authors of this book helps her fam ily to understand more about Henrietta cellsRead MoreThe Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks1732 Words   |  7 PagesThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a book written by Rebecca Skloot in 2010 that tells the story of Henrietta Lacks and the immortal cell line known as HeLa found in her cervical cancer cells in 1951. Rebecca Skloot first heard about Henrietta Lacks in a college biology classroom back when she was a teenager. Henrietta Lacks was a 31 years old black tobacco farmer who died of cancer, and without her or her family’s knowledge, a sample of the HeLa cell wasRead MoreThe Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks1042 Words   |  5 Pagessitting in a college biology class when she first heard of Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cells. In class, Rebecca saw how the HeLa cells were able to reproduce and â€Å"they became the first immortal human cells ever grown in a laboratory† (Skloot 4). Henrietta Lack was also a black woman. Rebecca became very interested and wanted to know more, but at the end of class the professor told her that there this very little information on Henrietta. This spurred Rebecca’s interest even more. She began extensiveRead MoreThe Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Essay1258 Words   |  6 Pagessociety, are the moral principles that govern our behavior, dictating what is right from wrong. The specifics of ethics changes as values in our society change and evolve. This occurs in Rebecca Skloots book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. One major reoccurring theme in the book is the lack of informed consent and autonomy. Fortunately, now there are safeguards which protect human rights in regard to health care and research. The Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical andRead MoreThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks1177 Words   |  5 PagesMelissa Dattilo Mr. Schussler First-Year Foundations 5 December 2011 Henrietta Lacks Reflection Henrietta Lacks is a mother, wife, and scientific discovery. Henrietta began her life as a normal human, growing up on tobacco farms. In 1951, her life changed forever due to the fact that she acquired cancer. Henrietta had a total of six children, in which five of them were born before the discovery of her cancer. Henrietta’s cancer proved to be quite significant in the scientific field. Her cellsRead MoreThe Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Essay2359 Words   |  10 Pages The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Research Paper for Principles of Epidemiology Written by: Jayme L Lohr Abstract This research paper is based on the findings from the book â€Å"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks†. What you will read and come to know is nonfiction. I wish I could put the pictures of what I have seen and read together here for you to perhaps get a better understanding. A story based on not Henrietta’s life being that of immortality, but rather cancer cells removed