Henrietta Lacks Analysis

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The Difference
Not knowing all the information you need to fully access a situation, or not being able to see the good being done because it hasn’t happened yet can lead you to feel a certain way about a topic. I am trying to show you in these next few how different your opinion can be based on the knowledge you have. Henrietta Lacks had cells taken from her without her or her family's knowledge; little did they know the positive impact it would have. The public interpretation would be different if the book had been published in 1951 because of the lack there of information, biased judgment, and ethical reasoning.

One way that the public interpretation would be different in 1951 would be the lack of information views on the doctors taking the cells. “But first- though no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting samples or asked if she wanted to be a Donor-Wharton picked up a sharp and shaved two dime-sized pieces of tissue from Henrietta’s cervix: one from her tumor, and one from the healthy cervical tissue” (pg. 33). This example states that the doctor deliberately took Henrietta’s cells without consent. From the public’s viewpoint in 1951, they could see this as the doctors violating her rights to her body and knowing what goes on in and around it. Today, we believe that this was a bold move for that doctor and we know that, by him taking those …show more content…

“During this time, we were not considered as humans, I guess. They could do what they liked” (Phelps Page 3). This is a prime example in showing, that during these times, black people were not considered human beings. So being that during the 1950s most of the community was white, they would not see any harm being done in a white doctor taking a black woman’s cells. That is how biased judgement could cause the public to interpret their feelings towards the doctor

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    All I can say is amazing information of your glorious and late Henrietta Lacks. This incedible women bettered our society in ways no common human could understand at the time because of how complex this matter was and still very much indeed is. I know there is much contraversy with the matter of how scientists achived immortal cells from your late relative, and I do strongly agree with the fact that it was wrong for these researches to take advantage of this incredible women, but I know it is not for me to say nonethless it must be said that even though it was wrong to take Lacks’ cells when she was dying sometimes one must suffer to bring joy to the entire world.

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    An abstraction can be defined as something that only exists as an idea. People are considered abstractions when they are dehumanized, forgotten about, or segregated and discriminated against. The scientific community and the media treated Henrietta Lacks and her family as abstractions in several ways including; forgetting the person behind HeLa cells, giving sub-par health care compared to Caucasians, and not giving reparations to the Lacks family. On the other hand, Rebecca Skloot offers a different perspective that is shown throughout the book. Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks describes the trials and tribulations the Lacks family has gone through because of HeLa cells and shows how seeing a person as an abstraction is a dangerous thing.

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